At Washington Fruit, we are committed to supplying safe, responsibly farmed and processed fruit that meets or exceeds industry standards. This includes maintaining GFSI (Equivalent GAP Food Safety Certifications), SQF food safety certifications at all orchard sites and being compliant with the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
SQF (Safe Quality Food) is a GFSI-certified audit scheme developed and maintained by the SQF Institute. It is a HACCP-based Food Safety Audit Scheme developed to verify that food safety programs developed and implemented by food producers are based on science, and are executed according to plan. Differing from some other audit schemes, SQF has an optional Quality Certification component, which requires that the HACCP method be used to analyze risks and preventions to quality hazards.
Derived from HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) principals, the HARPC system breaks down and analyzes each step of a process to identify where hazards can be introduced, or how the risk of hazards can be reduced or controlled in order to produce the safest possible product.
Washington Fruit & Produce Co. Packing Operations are current with all Food Safety Modernization Act regulations. We are defined under FSMA as a Secondary Activities Farm, therefore are subject to the Produce Safety Rule. However, we have all programs in place, and meet the requirements of the Preventive Controls for Human Foods Standards we well. This includes Supply Chain requirements.
All produce packed at Washington Fruit & Produce Co. packing facilities is sourced from growers with GFSI-certified or GFSI-equivalent GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) Food Safety Programs. We work with our growers to find the GAP program which best fits the needs of each operation.
Washington Fruit’s Food Safety Department conducts daily ATP testing to verify that standard sanitation operating procedures are being executed as designed. Weekly environmental monitoring samples are collected and tested on-site in an effort to seek out and destroy bacteria and microbial harborage sites. A 3rd party lab is used for source and process water testing and for occasional environmental monitoring tests to compare to our internal results.
Daily inspections are conducted on-site by the WA State Department of Agriculture and our own Internal Quality Control Team helps to ensure we are shipping safe, quality fresh fruit that meet established grade standards.
At the forefront of the industry, Washington Fruit has continually developed tracking and logging systems for precise management of goods throughout our facility all the way to our customers. Maintaining a fleet of forklifts fitted with computers and barcode readers ensures accuracy throughout the process and enables us to trace a box back to the lot if necessary. Secure traceability has, and always will be, a top priority of Washington Fruit.
