A critique of the Melon Draft Guidance

A critique of the Melon Draft Guidance
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Melons constitute one of the most important farm produce that is usually cultivated in the United States. Hence, this draft guidance was highly inevitable in order to assist both the local as well as foreign firms which are involved in the exportation of the melons (Food and Drug Administration, 2009). This is because the draft guidance is mostly concerned with ensuring that there is a drastic reduction of the chances of microbial food safety hazards in the entire supply chain of the melons and their products in all levels of production, that is, from the farm level to the foodservice or retail level. However, this requires adherence to the recommendations that have been proposed in this draft guideline as the starting point from which all the other melon safety programs should be evaluated against.
This draft guidance clearly indicates the responsibilities that need to be played by all the parties involved in the farming, processing, packaging and distribution of melons. Therefore, this clearly outlines the roles that are to be played by all the parties to ensure that there is maintenance of the required safety standards which are crucial in preventing contamination of the melons by microbial pathogens which accounts for the highest percentage of food-borne diseases linked with melons (Pretty, 2009). Correspondingly, the need for collaboration between the involved parties is advocated in this draft guidance, for example, the growers have to liaise with the packing house operators in order to ensure that safety measures that are outlined in this draft guidance are effectively adhered to always (Food and Drug Administration, 2009).
This draft guideline is offering a clear guidance to packinghouse operators in order to ensure that there is no increased microbial contamination in the handling of melons in the packinghouse. This is mainly because this document provides proper sanitation procedures for the verification and validation of the packinghouse activities to ensure that the melons do not experience micr...