K-State Research & Extension and the University of Missouri Extension will provide GAPs certification training and food safety plan development assistance in an upcoming online training. This training should help your farm successfully complete a USDA GAP audit and will assist you in creating a food safety plan. The workshop will be taught by Londa Nwadike, KSU/MU, using materials developed by Cal Jamerson, former KSU Produce Safety Extension Associate who has extensive first hand experience getting his family farm USDA GAP Harmonized certified 4 times. He has also helped Kansas farms get GAP/GHP certified. We will be providing his food safety plan and logbooks that have been passing USDA GAP audits. You will be able to customize his plan to your operation, allowing you to create an audit- ready food safety plan.
The session will cover the GAP audit process (costs, who to contact, what to expect), how to create a farm map, keeping practical records from existing templates, and reviewing the core aspects of a food safety plan. You also can get input to customizing the templates to your farming operation. You will have all the information you need to prepare the needed documents for a GAPs audit.
Note that the workshop will focus on the GAP/GHP audit, and will also provide information on the Harmonized GAP and the Harmonized GAP Plus+ audit. Also note that both MU and KSU currently have GAPs cost share funding available through Specialty Crop Block Grants in each state.
The zoom link for accessing the training online will be sent 2 days before the training.