Accreditation - the evaluation and formal recognition of a program, service, etc., by a competent and recognized authority.
Action plan - actions or recommendations to be accomplished to develop, improve or correct a program addressed to ensure the quality and safety of a product.
Agricultural inputs - all materials used in primary production of fresh fruits and vegetables (for example, seeds, fertilizers, water, agro- chemicals).
Certification - a procedure in which a "third party" gives a written guarantee that a product, process or service conforms to a standard. Certification can be seen as a way by which the actors in the chain (producers-traders-consumers) relate to each other to ensure the safety and quality of a product.
Clean water - water that does not impair food safety in the way in which it is used.
Cleaning - the removal of soil, food residue, dirt, grease or other objectionable matter.
Code of practice - voluntary document, containing general recommendations that allow its adoption by the sector to which it is addressed. It gives general recommendations on practices and operations to implement the established objectives.
Cold chain - maintaining suitable refrigeration temperatures throughout the handling chain of a product, to ensure its quality and safety.
Composting - a controlled process in which aerobic and anaerobic micro-organisms digest organic materials.
Contaminant - means any substance not intentionally added to food, which is present in such food as a result of the production (including operations carried out in crop husbandry, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine),manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food or as a result of environmental contamination. The term does not include insect fragments, rodent hairs and other extraneous matter.
Contamination - the introduction or occurrence of a contaminant in food or food environment.
Disinfection - the reduction, by means of chemical agents and/or physical methods, of the number of microorganisms in the environment, to a level that does not compromise food safety or suitability.
Food-borne disease (FBD) - any symptom or syndrome resulting from a disease transmitted to human beings by contaminated foods.
Food hygiene - comprises conditions and measures necessary for the production, processing, storage and distribution of food designed to ensure a safe, sound, wholesome product fit for human consumption.
HACCP - a system which identifies, evaluates and controls hazards that are significant for food safety.
Food safety - assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use.
Food suitability - assurance that food is acceptable for human consumption according to its intended use.
Good agricultural practices - practices of primary production improving on conventional production and handling methods, to ensure product safety, reducing the negative impact of production systems on the environment, fauna, flora and workers’ health.
Good manufacturing practices - post-harvest practices to prevent and control product safety hazards with reduced effects on the environment and on workers’ health.
Hazard - a biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food with the potential to cause an adverse health effect.
Hazard analysis - the process of collecting and evaluating information on hazards and conditions leading to their presence to decide which are significant for food safety and therefore should be addressed in the HACCP plan.
Micro-organisms - include yeasts, fungi, bacteria and viruses.
Pathogen - any micro-organism causing human diseases.
Potable water - drinking water complying with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) quality regulations for potable water.
Primary production - those steps in the food chain up to and including, for example, harvesting, slaughter, milking and fishing.
Quality enhancement - in this Manual, quality enhancement embraces activities relating to product handling to "enhance" its quality attributes using, for example, post-harvest technologies. Quality enhancement is a differentiating strategy to open market opportunities. Post-harvest only maintains and enhances primary quality, it does not make it.
Risk - a function of the probability of and adverse health effect and the severity of that effect, consequential to a hazard(s) in food.
Risk analysis -a process consisting of three components: risk assessment, risk management and risk communication.
Standardized Sanitary Operation Procedures (SSOPs) - fully recorded and detailed description of cleaning and disinfection procedures to ensure their correct implementation.
Traceability/product tracing - the ability to follow the movement of a food through specified stages (s) of production, processing and distribution.
