Food Safety
Crown Orchard Company is committed to providing our customers with high quality safe fruit. Food Safety is a top priority. We continually strive to meet and exceed the industry best practices and standards. Our Food Safety Team and Management attend trainings and participate in webinars, work with our state extension programs and utilize as many resources as possible to constantly improve our Food Safety Program. Crown Orchard’s Food Safety Team leaders were among the first in the state of Virginia to earn the Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training certificates. We are proudly certified annually by several third party audits for our orchards, harvest crews, and packing/storage facility.
We at Crown do everything we can to produce a safe product for our customers, but you should always wash your fresh produce before consuming for added safety!
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Crown Orchard Company is certified with USDA Harmonized Gap Plus+, Canada GAP (GFSI), and FSMA.
For more information contact Ray or Sarah.
Canada Gap
Canada Gap is a food safety program for companies that produce, handle and broker fruits and vegetables. The program is benchmarked to and officially recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).
Crown Orchard is certified by Canada Gap Fruits and Vegetables Version 9.0
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FSMA
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law on January 4, 2011. The overall objective of FSMA is to focus on prevention of food safety issues.
The FSMA Produce Safety Rule is the first mandatory federal standard for the production of fruits and vegetables in the United States.
Prior to FSMA people in the produce industry were encouraged to follow voluntary guidance.
USDA Harmonized Plus+
Crown Orchard Company proudly supports the USDA agricultural programs. We received our first USDA GAP/GHP accreditation in 2005 and have continued to do so each year since. When the USDA went from GAP/GHP to the Harmonized audit, Crown Orchard did as well. When the USDA offered the next audit, Harmonized Plus+, which is technically recognized as GFSI, Crown Orchard Company was one of the first in the state of Virginia to complete this audit and earn this certification.