Ensuring food safety from farm to fork through industrial engineering

While farms implement the mandatory FSMA regulations, some farmers are auditing their own food safety policies through the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The case study described in this article demonstrates industrial engineering principles applied to improve the record-keeping process at a vegetable farm in Iowa by developing a low cost and open source tool called FarmTabs and its benefits for enhancing overall farm business efficiency. Case study with Iowa farms' nonprofit The issues surrounding traceability records were observed firsthand for Grow: Johnson County, a GAP-certified vegetable farm operated by Iowa Valley RC&D. Iowa Valley is a nonprofit with the mission of strengthening local food systems, leading collaborative placemaking projects and bringing technical assistance to rural communities. [...]as the customers pick up the products, the details of crop name, harvest and pack date, and lot number had to be entered again in the printed delivery log.