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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.
Sign Up
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Implement & Train

  • 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
Train & Implement
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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.
Audit
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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.
Certification

Standards

Freshcare provides five certification programs, three for the fresh produce industry and two for the wine industry.

  1. Food Safety and Quality – the Freshcare Food Safety and Quality Standard (FSQ) is globally recognised and 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Supply Chain – the Freshcare Supply Chain Standard is globally recognised and has been developed to provide a food safety and quality management program for businesses involved in fresh produce supply chain operations.
  4. Sustainability – Viticulture – the Freshcare Australian Wine Industry Standard of Sustainable Practice – Viticulture, has been developed to enable viticulture producers to demonstrate world-leading management practices and stewardship of their land, resources and communities in which they operate.
  5. Sustainability – Winery – the Freshcare Australian Wine Industry Standard of Sustainable Practice – Winery, extends the principles of the viticulture standard into wineries and wine business practices, to enable the Australian wine industry to demonstrate world-leading management practices.

 

Reference Material

Crop List

The Freshcare Crop List is the master list of all crops, produce and produce groups that are covered by the Freshcare standards. These are the crop types and groupings that will 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 a useful reference guide for industry and customers looking for more information about the scope of certification achieved on a Freshcare certificate.

The Crop List is managed by Freshcare with, updates published and released from time to time. If you have any questions about the list, please contact us.

Access the Crop List Here

Audits for Certification

To achieve Freshcare certification, following training and implementation, an audit of your implemented program needs to be completed.

After training, the 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, undertaken by a contracted Certification Body. 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), Environmental (ENV3), and Supply Chain Standards occur every year.

Audits for the Australian Wine Industry Standards of Sustainable Practice for Viticulture (AWISSP-VIT) and Winery (AWISSP_WIN) occur every three years.

Ready for Audit? Find a Certification Body