GAP

	GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) University of Idaho Potato GAP Audit Organizational Manual

What is GAP?

Despite the fact that no potato products have been implicated in any contamination incidents, it is important for the potato industry to be proactive in their demonstration to the consumer of good agricultural (GAP) and good handling practices (GHP). The GAP/GHP Audit Verification Program is a volunteer program designed to assess a farm’s effort to minimize the unintentional microbial or chemical contamination of potatoes prior to reaching the consumer.

This University of Idaho Potato GAP Audit Organizational Manual was developed to coordinate your farming operation’s standard operating procedures (SOP) of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for food and farm safety with the requirements of the USDA GAP Audit Checklist. This manual was designed to simplify the necessary requirements to successfully pass the USDA GAP Audit.

GAP manual layout

This manual includes the following sections: Introduction and references, Audit checklist information, Overall Farm Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), SOP Appendix, Maps, Documentation, Employee signed policy forms (in English and Spanish), Current USDA Audit Checklist and Miscellaneous. The SOP Appendix contains procedures that require documentation but provided in greater detail compared to the Overall SOP. The four USDA Audit sections (scopes) included in the UI handbook are: General Questions, Farm Review, Field Harvest and Field Packing Activities, and Storage and Transportation. Not every operation will require all these scopes and some operations may require others not listed in this handbook. The farm/company (auditee) will determine which scopes of the checklist they would like covered. Not all questions in each audit will be applicable to every farm and therefore some questions may be answered “not applicable”. A passing score is 80% of the points for applicable questions.

How to use this manual

This material was developed to coordinate your farming operation’s standard operating procedures (SOP) of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for food and farm safety with the requirements of the USDA GAP Audit Checklist. It is designed to provide a detailed template for a potato farm’s SOP that is directly referenced to the USDA Audit Checklist and the required documentation. Each bullet point of the SOP is referenced to the Audit Checklist requirement (eg. G-3, 1-1, 2-1, 4-1) and a document number (eg, D#1), if documentation is required. Examples of preformatted documentation for all mandatory requirements are included. These documents can be downloaded and adjusted to fit an individual operation.

For example, in the SOP:

· Potable water is available to all workers. G3, D#1

G3 indicates that this question is found in the General Information section of the Audit and is question 3. D#1 indicates that the appropriate documentation is found in the Document section of the UI handbook and is the 1st document. This document also has the reference to G3 on it to make it easier to find what question it pertains to.

Please note that the SOP template included in this manual needs to be tailored to your specific farming operation since some points may not be applicable. Within this manual there are sections that include pre-formatted documents, areas to insert maps, and the current USDA Audit Checklist.

Please check for current versions of the USDA Audit Checklist frequently at Current USDA Audit Checklist . The most current version is May 11, 2007.

Supplies necessary to compile manual: 3-ring binder, 8 dividers with index tabs, 3-hole punch, printer

	Step by step procedure to compile manual
New Manual Updates as of 4/8/08	GAP Manual (Microsoft Word version) (save files to customize and/or to complete)	GAP Manual (pdf version) (Unable to customize; print only)
	Introduction and list of reference materials Audit checklist information Overall farm SOP SOP Appendix Maps Documentation Employee signed policy form (in Spanish and English) Current USDA Audit Checklist Miscellaneous Tabs for index dividers	Introduction and list of reference materials Audit checklist information Overall farm SOP SOP Appendix Maps Documentation Employee signed policy form (in Spanish and English) Current USDA Audit Checklist Miscellaneous Entire manual in pdf
	Step by step procedure to compile manual	If the pdf format did not open you need to
		Download Adobe Reader
Back to UI Potato Storage Website

Employee signed policy form (in Spanish and English)

Employee signed policy form (in Spanish and English)