Earlier this week, we posted on Facebook the specific steps we were taking at Pear Blossom Farms to do our part in combatting the coronavirus pandemic, and to assure consumers that our products were entirely safe to use. While this particular virus and the unique dangers it present are new to us, the unconditional commitment necessary to protect the safety of our product goes back more than a century.
Beyond the usual commitment to food safety present in most facilities, Pear Blossom Farms operates from a culture ingrained with an absolute fidelity to safely preserving food, passed on as a legacy from pioneering ancestors. I can recall from an early age for example, our grandmother insisting not only in the use of really hot water, but that it was always employed at a rolling boil temperature. Though heat treatment is still one of our most valuable tools in preserving shelf-stable foods, our processes have evolved substantially from those days.
Today we utilize (and document) ph testing and other very precise guidelines for all of our acidified foods, better quality jars and lids that provide more dependable seals in all of our products, as well as the use of superior sanitizing materials not available 100 years ago. Even more important than all the better equipment and testing supplies we have though, is the unwavering dedication to food safety that is as much a part of our culture as is our love of great food.
Another resource we have available to us that our grandparents and great-grandparents could not take advantage of, is a partnership with a Federal Food and Drug Administration dedicated to the safety of America’s food supply. They are a vital partner in what we do every day, and some of their most recent statements, pertaining to the coronavirus as it relates to the safe production of food, provide critical insights.
According to the FDA, “Currently there is no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with transmission of COVID-19 . . . Facilities are required to use personnel practices that protect against contamination of food, food contact surfaces and packaging and to maintain clean and sanitized facilities and food contact surfaces [practices we rigidly adhere to and document]. Although it is possible that the infected worker may have touched surfaces in your facility, FDA-regulated food manufacturers are required to follow Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs). Maintaining CGMPs in the facility [also thoroughly documented at Pear Blossom Farms] should minimize the potential for surface contamination and eliminate contamination when it occurs.” You can read the full statement and learn other valuable information at https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food-safety-and-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19
We will continue watching for further statements from the FDA, and to sustain our partnership with them in efforts to insure the absolute safety of the food products we make. We hope that all of our fans will continue to purchase them with confidence, as we carry on our devotion to the responsible operation of Pear Blossom Farms. A devotion going back through the generations, and which, will extend far beyond the days these troubling times have passed.