**4.2 Institutional standards and traceability - GMP for perishable produce**

Good Management Practices (GMP), are guidelines, advising producers how to manage the water, nutrients, and pesticides they use, in order to minimize agriculture's impact on the state's natural resources (Raspor 2008). GMPs were developed because the agricultural activity has been linked to the contamination of watersheds with nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus), pesticides and discharged sediments and water. The application of GMP guidelines is listed below.


*Role of Traceability Systems for Food Safety within Post-Harvest Systems: Indian Context DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110192*


#### **4.3 Product traceability: HACCP**

Food safety is managed using the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) approach, which is recognized globally. The Codex Alimentarius Commission has approved it [20]. It is a tool that may be used to methodically identify risks unique to particular products and processes and outline ways to control such risks to assure the safety of perishable goods [21]. In order for the HACCP Plan to be implemented effectively within the industry, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) procedures that effectively control general hazards to food safety must be followed. The chain must have a structural requirement stated by GMP and operational requirement stated by both GAP and GMP. The main purpose of HACCP is to prevent, reduce and eliminate hazards in food and to provide a safe product to the end customer.

#### *4.3.1 Principles of HACCP*


The operation of HACCP in the perishable food chain is described with respect to different key players of the supply chain in the next section. In India, the aforementioned Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) are still in their infancy. Due to pressure

**Figure 2.**

*Flowchart showing process HACCP implementation.*

from foreign buyers, only a small number of farmers may be engaging in it. But it needs to be clearly stated that every player in the perishable food channel is accountable for ensuring food safety from farm to fork (**Figure 2**).
