Sign Up
- Businesses should complete the Sign-Up form to join Freshcare.
- Pay the one-off registration fee.
- Gain access to Freshcare participant benefits, including resources, news and more.
Train & Implement
- Sign up for E-learning or face-to-face training.
- Complete course activities.
- Implement the program into your business.
- Complete required testing.
- Conduct internal audit. Identify issues and correct them.
Audit
- Contact Certification Bodies to get quotes for audit.
- Book in the external audit at least 90-days in advance.
- Sign the contract for audit with your chosen Certification Body.
- The Certification Body will provide an audit date and plan prior.
- An external auditor comes to audit when the site is operational (during harvest).
- Action and close out any Corrective Actions Records.
Certification
- Congratulations, you’ve been certified!
- Once the audit has been successfully completed, certification is achieved.
- Businesses receive their Freshcare certificate via email from their certification body.
- Certificates can also be accessed from FreshcareOnline.
- Promote your certification through use of the Freshcare logo.
Standards
For fresh produce growers and grower-packers, there are two standards available for on-farm production:
- Food Safety and Quality – the Freshcare Food Safety and Quality Standard (FSQ) has been developed specifically for Australian producers and outlines the good agricultural practice (GAP), best management criteria, and specific food safety requirements (HACCP) for the production and packing of fresh produce on-farm.
- Environmental – the Freshcare Environmental Program has been designed to help Australian producers demonstrate world-leading environmental management practices and stewardship of their land, resources and communities in which they operate.
Reference Material
Crop List
Freshcare standards cover the growing, packing, and distribution of ‘whole produce’ only. The Freshcare Crop List is the master list of all crops, produce and produce groups that are covered by the Freshcare standards that can be displayed on Freshcare certificates.
You can use the list to identify whether the crops that you grow or products you handle are covered by Freshcare certification.
This list is also useful for trainers and auditors as a reference guide. You can also use the list to give customers more information about the scope of certification you have achieved to support your Freshcare certificate.
We manage the list and add updates from our stakeholders. If you have any questions about the list, please contact us.
Audits for Certification
To complete the journey to Freshcare certification, following training and implementation, an audit of your implemented program needs to be completed.
After training with us, our practices and procedures of our standards must be implemented across your production and operating systems. This ensures that the required levels of your chosen standard are met.
After our standards are implemented and required records are established, compliance is verified with an external third-party audit. These audits must be undertaken during your harvest/operational period, as access to all parts of your operations is essential for the auditor.
Audits for the fresh produce industry’s Food Safety and Quality (FSQ4.2) and Environmental (ENV3), are every year.