Food quality training in South Africa

As we are all aware of, food losses and waste are still a common problem, with numbers of even one third of all food being wasted. Because of that, improvements along the food chain are necessary if we want to feed our planet.

Q-Point therefore provides training on the topic of product quality control, since this can be an important practice in the reduction of food losses and waste. When produce is sorted and graded as early as possible in the chain, the remaining shelf-life can be determined. The chain actor is then able to decide what market the produce should be send to, based on the needed time for transportation and the remaining shelf-life.

This time, Yvette and Feline were happy to provide the training in South-Africa with the project partners Boland College and Koue Bokkeveld.

With a group of inspiring and dedicated participants we covered the following training topics:

What are the minimum requirements fruits and vegetables should meet and how to assess these? Based on the UNECE and OECD standards
How to sample, grade, and classify your produce?
How can you use your five senses to classify produce properly?
How do you ensure that information is also sent backwards in the chain and how can you communicate as effectively as possible?
What are the best practices for shelf-life testing?

All training topics were made practical with various assignments, where participants had to assess actual produce, such as boxes of apples, batches of beans, or peppers. Also a field visit was added to the program, to expose the participants to different methods of quality control practices in day-to-day work in the value chains. We thus visited a farm that also had a greenhouse and small packhouse for the local market, a wine cellar producing wines for various (global) markets, and a packhouse for fruits and vegetables for both the export and local market.

Thank you Boland College for hosting us and for all participants being eager to learn and sharing experiences amongst the group.