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INFO LETTER
Fruit, vegetables and potatoes
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Issue: 03/2013
Quality Assurance.
From farm to shop.
The severe flooding in the spring hit south-
ern and eastern Germany the hardest – in a
barely imaginable way. In this article, Joa-
chim Ziegler from the service centre for the
rural Rhine-Palatinate region takes a look
at the consequences of the floods and what
you can do.
In ancient cultures, such as on the Lower Nile,
floods were considered a blessing for mankind
and nature due to the deposits of fertile soil, the
anaerobic disinfection of soil, and the flushing
of salt in arid zones, but nowadays they con-
stitute an almost incalculable risk for fruit and
vegetable producers. The water has long since
receded, the mud has been cleared from the
houses and businesses, but what remains is
the uncertainty about the lasting ingress of
pollutants from industrial and residential areas
or of microbiological contamination from sew-
age treatment works etc. Previous instances
of flooding, however, only led to very sporadic
persistent ground contamination. This is caused
by the ingress of heavy metals and pollution by
petroleum-derived hydrocarbons from damaged
tanks. Minor oil pollution can’t even be traced
any more after a while due to microbial decom-
position, especially when the soil has been in-
tensively loosened and mixed once the area is
accessible again. Even
for micro-organisms that
constitute a hygiene risk
(e.g. salmonellas, en-
teroaggregative E. coli),
the contamination risk
drops markedly after an
interim period of sever-
al months (> 6 months)
until the soil is next cul-
tivated.
Heavy metals on the
other hand are not
degraded by soil cul-
tivation. However, this
kind of contamination
is generally very rare.
Thorough liming and significantly increasing soil
pH above the neutral value can help immobilise
heavy metals.
Commissioning soil analyses
It only makes sense to commission expensive
soil analyses if there are compelling reasons to
do so. It is obligatory to observe the precaution-
ary limits for metals (cadmium, lead, chrome,
copper, mercury, nickel and zinc) and organ-
ic substances (e.g. polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs), benzopyrene and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs)) as well as the regulations
for the soil to crop exposure pathway stipulat-
ed in Germany’s Federal Soil Protection and
Contaminated Sites Ordinance (Bundes-Boden-
schutzgesetz, available at
ternet.de/bundesrecht/bbodschv/gesamt.pdf).
In case of flooded, close-to-the-surface wells,
the possibility of contamination should also be
taken into consideration and ruled out by ana-
lysing irrigation water.
Expert advice
What to do after flooding
Starting in January 2014, QS is to provide a
new service. In future, scheme participants
will voluntarily be able to have their so-
cial management programme assessed for
uniformity of principles in an independent
inspection. The advisory board for fruit,
vegetables and potatoes recently issued
a specific guideline called “Voluntary QS
Inspection of Working and Social Condi-
tions”.
This step was based on
the wishes of market
participants. A num-
ber of companies have
started to ask for doc-
umentation of good
social practice in the
supply chain. With this
new social module, QS
is offering a practical
solution that is tailored
to Germany. It includes
a suitable requirement
profile for all stages
of the supply chain for
fruit, vegetables and
potatoes, enabling the independent documen-
tation and inspection of companies’ social man-
agement programmes. The contents and the
system of the voluntary QS inspection are based
on German law and were drawn up with due
regard to the Global G.A.P. module “GlobalGAP
Risk Assessment on Social Practice” (GRASP).
Participation always voluntary
Scheme participants at all levels can voluntarily
SERVICE FOR SCHEME PARTICIPANTS
INSPECTION OF WORKING AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS NOW POSSIBLE
register for the inspection. The inspection will be
independent of participation in the QS scheme.
By registering, companies declare their intention
to have an assessment made of their compli-
ance with the guideline on working and social
conditions. The frequency of the inspections is
the same as for the regular QS or QSGAP scheme
audits.
Producers opting for the inspection do so by
contacting their coordinator, who will make all
the arrangements necessary for participation. All
other companies will register for the inspection
via the QS database. Family businesses that em-
ploy family members only will not be inspected.
Following the introduction of the inspections,
QS and the certification bodies will work togeth-
er closely to produce precise evaluations of im-
plementation. This will ensure that the require-
ment profile is applied in a practical manner and
can be adjusted as and when required.
The “Voluntary QS Inspection of Working and So-
cial Conditions” guideline can be obtained from
the download centre on the QS website.
