Food safety

Farm Frites aims to fully guarantee the safety of its food products at all times. Every Farm Frites grower, wherever they are in the world, must be Global GAP certified for food safety. Other local food safety certification schemes also apply, such as VVA or Vegaplan in Western Europe.

A food safety certificate ensures that the standards of a particular region or country are met regarding hygiene and safe food production. Each year, an independent auditor assesses whether a grower can be declared food-safe. All growers must also provide a record of their fertilisation programme one week prior to delivery, showing that only permitted crop protection products were used during cultivation.

Pre-sampling and quality control systems

All potatoes that are to be processed undergo pre-sampling. Pre-sampling means that a sample is taken in the field while the potatoes are being lifted and transported to the factory. This is done to determine the quality, so that we know exactly which products the potatoes can be used for.

We also take samples of potatoes that are to be stored so that we know exactly which quality potato we store and where. We assess the average length, size, eyes (defects) and specific gravity, as these factors do not change during storage. Samples are taken again just before delivery, and this time the colour when cooked is also assessed.

Control systems  

Worldwide

The Farm Frites monitoring program is implemented to check all potato plots every week during cultivation using a checklist. In this way, fertilisation and irrigation activities can be planned and diseases and other defects prevented.

We use a wide range of modern technologies to ensure the efficient use of water, fertilisers and pesticides:

• We check soil humidity using sensors to optimise the irrigation program;
• We control disease risk and reduce the application of pesticides using weather stations combined with a DSS (Decision Support System).

Western Europe

It is essential that the potatoes are traceable. The Crop-R program is perfect for ensuring this traceability; the growers input their plots into this program so that the potato plots are mapped in minute detail. 

We monitor fertiliser levels in the soil, crop and potato using sensors, which allows us to optimise fertiliser application.