International horticultural certification provider GlobalGAP has developed a new toolkit for assessing microbiological risks in the primary production of fresh fruit and vegetables.

The toolkit, a result of research carried out last year, will give guidelines on how to deal with a wide range of hygiene issues by referencing each risk to a relevant control point in the current IFA standard.

A company spokesperson said: "The toolkit serves as a guideline that facilitates: the identification of hygiene hazards during the harvest of fresh fruit and vegetables, and the comprehension of the measures to be considered in mitigating those hazards."

The new toolkit will be presented for the first time at the annual GlobalGAP summit on 6 November during a roundtable discussion on microbiological issues.

A full program of the GlobalGAP Summit 2012 can be found here.