Spanish Post-Harvest Operations Harmonized Food Safety Standard Now Official & Available

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A volunteer team of food safety experts has created an authorized Spanish translation of the Post-harvest Operations Harmonized Standards that is now official as of March 1, 2015 without change.

“A Spanish version of the Harmonized Standards has been needed for some time,” said Dr. David Gombas, Senior Vice President, Food safety and Technology at United Fresh and coordinator for the Produce GAPs Harmonization Initiative. “Several Spanish translations of the post-harvest standards had already been drafted with the best of intentions but, as we saw in those translations, words can be translated different ways, and slightly different versions create a risk of differences in audit expectations. The team, coming from diverse backgrounds, worked over each sentence with a consensus approach to select a translation they felt best met the intent of the English version.”

United Fresh applauds the volunteers and thanks them for their efforts:

* Mario Velasco, Quality Certification Services

* Steve Eguino and Carlos Perez, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

* Georgina Felix, Fresh Produce Association of the Americas

* Sergio Nieto-Montenegro and Jose Almanza, Food Safety Consulting & Training Solutions, LLC

* Richard Yudin, Fyffes

The team’s next objective will be to translate the Field Operations and Harvesting Harmonized Standards, expected in Spring 2015. More details will be forthcoming once that is available. The Spanish version of the Harmonized Standards is now available here for download. For more

information about the Standards, contact Erin Grether, Manager, Grassroots Coalitions, at 202-303-3402 or egrether@unitedfresh.org.

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About United Fresh Produce Association

Founded in 1904, the United Fresh Produce Association brings together companies across every segment of the fresh produce supply chain, including growers, shippers, fresh cut processors, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, foodservice operators, industry suppliers and allied associations. We empower industry leaders to shape sound government policy. We deliver the resources and expertise companies need to succeed in managing complex business and technical issues. We provide the training and development individuals need to advance their careers in produce. Through these endeavors, we unite our industry with a common purpose – to build long-term value for our members and grow produce consumption.

Source: United Fresh Produce Association