Epsilon Open Archive

During recent years, outbreak of food illnesses related to fruit and vegetables have globally increased. Contamination may occur during the entire production network and hazards at an earlier stage may not necessarily be counteracted at a later stage of the farm-to-fork chain. As many fruit and vegetables are consumed directly without heating, it is necessary to take preventive actions during pre-harvest. This literature study deals with pre-harvest measures to ensure microbially safe fruit and vegetables and has partly been funded by the Swedish Board of Agriculture within the framework of support to initiatives within food production (Dnr 19-666/12). Its objective is to describe interactions between resources and measures within the cropping system and microbial risks during pre-harvest from a scientific perspective to identify critical points and to identify knowledge gaps.It uses a bi-angular approach and initially describes microbiological risks (bacteria, virus, protozoa) of importance for fruit and vegetable cropping systems (incl. herbs, sprouts and sprouted shoots) as well as plants as a microbial habitat. Individual resources (staff, soil/growing medium, organic manure, water), cultural management (hygiene, fertilization, irrigation, crop health/plant diseases) and approaches are displayed in the light of microbial risks. In this context, leadership committed to safe fruit and vegetable products is essential. As the report is written for a broad spectrum of readers along the production network for fruit and vegetables -from production to trade and distribution -, more space has been given to some basic, but decisive resources and cultural management practices.