Food Safety Best Practices Overview

• Review the topic of elderberry food safety at a glance

• Watch a series of short videos (in English and Spanish) on small-scale approaches to harvesting, washing, destemming, and drying elderberries

• Find additional resources and webinars

• Find links to UC SAREP’s guides on elderberry food safety best practices

Food Safety Best Practices: Elderberry Harvest

• Step-by-step food safety best practices for harvesting elderberries

• Why elderberries shouldn’t be consumed raw

• Why “clean breaks” and traceability are important

• About Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs)

Food Safety Best Practices: Elderberry Post-Harvest Handling

• Why Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are important

• Methods for washing elderberries

• Methods for destemming elderberries

• Cleaning and sanitizing equipment

Food Safety Best Practices: Elderberry Drying

• Why drying is an effective method for extending the shelf-life of elderberries

• Examples of different drying systems

• Advantages and disadvantages of different drying systems

• Brief summary of UC Davis drying trial

Food Safety Best Practices: Elderberry Freezing, Storage, and Holding

• Why freezing is a useful method for preparing elderberries to be destemmed, in addition to storing elderberries until they are ready for processing into value-added products

• Examples of common freezing equipment

• Equipment cleaning and sanitizing

• Tips for packing and storing