7.4.13 Documentation
Documentation is an indispensable part of GMP and needs proper control and monitoring. The documentation ensures the availability of data for review, validation and analysis. The data, which are to be incorporated under the document, may involve specifications, procedures, methods to manufacture, quality control, maintenance plan, etc. It may also have records of inspection, audit, etc.
Holding and Distribution The true plan should get to the point where the product is delivered to the consumer. The following stages are considered important:
• Holding the products: This stage is very important to ensure that the products remain in good condition. Rough handling should be avoided and the products stored under clean, tidy and proper conditions. It can be very difficult to maintain effective stock rotation unless root and tuber products are stored in an ordered fashion.
• Distribution of products: The employees/people assigned to the duties in stores and warehouses must be trained and made fully aware of their responsibilities. This is the last opportunity to check whether everything is in good order. Therefore, the data regarding quantity, name, batch number, expiry date, date of dispatch, along with customer’s name and address should be maintained. The distribution records must be constructed to identify the defective product or facilitate recall of that defective product (Karmacharya, 2012).
• Process controls, warehousing and delivery: There should be in place general sanitation processes and controls, which are necessary to ensure that roots and tubers are suitable for human consumption. The control points such as humidity, temperature and flow rate should be properly maintained to store and disseminate the root and tuber produce in a secured way. The root and tuber manufacturers must have controls against contamination, mix-ups and mistakes for the duration of warehousing and distribution. Separate areas for product testing should be made available and procedures arranged for management, storage of products and distribution records to help trace deliveries. Specifications should also be prepared for warehouses and transport facilities, which are not under the direct control of the root and tuber product processing plant.
Stability Testing and Retest Date The retest date can be decided based on the properly designed stability studies:
• Storage conditions: The conditions under which roots and tubers are stored should be based on stability studies, which consider the potential effects of storage time, temperature and relative humidity. Based on the changes observed, a date can be established. The retest dates may be different for different climatic zones.
• Stability testing: The samples to be analyzed in the stability testing programme should be stored in packaging materials/containers, simulating the physico-chemical properties of those in which the product will be marketed. After the initial retest date has been established, this should be monitored later by adding at least one batch a year to the stability programme. When the same tropical roots and tubers are produced at several sites, at least one batch a year from each site should be added to the stability programme. The potential effects of critical process changes upon established retest dates should be monitored by adding samples made by the modified process to the stability programme. Data collected during stability testing should be properly evaluated after each test point, so as to determine if there are any unexpected trends that might indicate a significant change in the retest period.
7.5 GMPs in Low-income Countries
The different food standards have swiftly infiltrated into agro-food marketplaces (Reardon and Farina, 2001) and manufacturing. Compliance with GMP is a necessary condition for marketing authorization in a number of countries. While GMP compliance is not universally adopted in low-income countries, the governments are under pressure to comply with GMP requirements when granting marketing authorization to domestic processors. GMP requirements may need additional investments in upgrading manufacturing facilities and this has implications to local producers. Concern has been raised in relation to the likely cost of standards inclusive of GMPs on smallholders in low-income nations (Fuchs et al, 2011; Vandermeer, 2006; Unnevehr, 2008). This evolves from the fact that strict GMPs could marginalize small producers, restricting access to export markets and result in higher manufacturing costs on smaller producers (ASARECA/ECAPAPA. 2004: Jaffee et al., 2005). Marketplace forces have motivated the improvement of many GMPs through the demand by consumers in developed markets for robust food safety and food quality assurances. This is often combined with traceability or identity preservation systems. The value chain approach to industrial development in the Agricultural Sector has become the standard by which agricultural investment is evaluated (UNIDO et al., 2010).
The leaving out of small-scale processors in developing countries from GMP systems is an issue of concern, since compliance with standards often necessitates substantial human, physical, financial, informational and network capital. Lack of funds and the certification expenses are on the whole common factors explaining the non-compliance of small-scale processors with standards (Hatanaka et al., 2005; Henson et al., 2011). Measures to escape seclusion, which may be put into practice, include:
• Presenting ample training to overcome human investment restraints;
• Fostering the development of the root and tuber infrastructure requisite to shore up GMPs in a low-income nation’s setting, such as third-party monitoring and quality corroboration schemes;
• Encouraging the participation of roots and tubers manufacturer associations to provide a significant group for the dissemination of information on GMPs to small-scale processors and improve the contractual influence of individual processors.
7.6 Conclusions
GMPs assure that the products can be processed consistently and controlled to the needs of the proposed use and as obligatory by the authority. Compliance with GMPs is thus important for marketing of processed root and tuber produce in many international markets. GMP compliance has not been universally adopted in low-income countries due to lack of awareness and fear of high investment. Therefore, the proper knowledge, dissemination and coordinated efforts between entrepreneurs and regulatory agencies may bring out its implementation effectively, which will boost the trade and bring economic advantages.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the valued input from Sam Onjolo, Kenya Bureau of Standards and the critical role played by all root and tube crops industry representatives in the East African region.
References
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