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