An Assessment on Aflatoxin Control in Pistachio‐Processing Units from Raw Material Reception to Packaging Based on ISO22000:2005 Model

Abstract

Because of the importance and usage of pistachios, it is necessary to improve their agricultural situation, particularly by establishing good processing equipment and packaging units near pistachio farms. It is possible to supply a high-quality product in large quantities for foreign and domestic markets. In this research, International Organization for Standardization 22000:2005 requirements were implemented in a pistachio-processing unit. Aflatoxin B1 content was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography before and after washing, immersing pool, wet sorting, drying, temporary storage and dry sorting. After analysis of measured data, it was found that the most reducing stage in aflatoxin content was wet sorting. Washing stage had no significant effect on aflatoxin B1 reduction. It is concluded that operational prerequisite program and critical control point have no differences important to hazard control, but they are different from a type of control measure aspect. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONIn this study, the authors employed food safety management system based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22000:2005 model to prepare safe pistachios with less aflatoxin content. All process units (pistachio reception, de-hulling, washing, immersing pool, dehumidifier, goo separator, wet sorting, drying, temporary storage, dry sorting, packaging) evaluated upon ISO22000:2005 requirements. Then the stages that had more significant effect on aflatoxin B1 content identified. The quantification of aflatoxin B1 in accordance with standard methods was also explained in the paper. The authors also investigated operational prerequisite programs and critical control points in hazard control.

Establishment the critical control point methodologies of seven major food processes in the catering industry to meet the core concepts of ISO 22000:2018 based on the Taiwanese experience

“…With respect to fresh produce, private agro‐ecological sector standards usually covered pesticide use, including their frequency of use, as well as issues of traceability (Pop, Zaharie, Dracea, & Vlădulescu, ). However, scholars and international journals have often offered different views regarding CCP when discussing HACCP courses regarding the step of “inspection‐acceptance” (Allata, Valero, & Benhadja, ; Fallah, Farhoodi, & Moradi, ; Fernández‐Segovia, Pérez‐Llácer, Peidro, & Fuentes, ; Food and Drug Administration, , , ; FSPCA, ; Health Bureau of Taichung City Government, ; Hung et al, ; Lu, Pua, Liu, Chang, & Cheng, ; National Animal Industry Foundation, ; Soman & Raman, ; Toregeani‐Mendes et al, ), thus creating inconsistencies in the approaches used. Relatedly, some researchers identified an excessive number of CCPs for different processing steps or the same processing step, an issue that likely accounted for the ineffectiveness of HACCP system implementation.…”