Gomayah Nigeria Limited

Quality Control

QUALITY ASSURANCE: Cashew nuts standards

The following programs are endorsed by the industry:

• Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), which provide growers guidelines and principles to apply for on-farm production and post-production processes, to pro-vide safety and healthy cashews, minimizing potential hazards, such as pathogens, contaminants, and pest management materials.

• Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), which define procedures to be used in the processing, packaging, storing, and transport stages by handlers to ensure the quality of the product. GMPs are used by handlers to treat cashews under the best sanitary conditions.

• Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), which provides a systematic preventive approach to food safety that identifies, assesses, and controls the risk of biological, chemical, and physical hazards in produc-tion processes.

CHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS

Approximate Quality Characteristics:

ChemicalMoisture Max 5%FreeFatty Acids< 0.7%Peroxide Value< 1 meq/kg

MicrobiologicalTotal Plate Count< 10.000 cfu/gYeast and Mould< 500 cfu/gEnterobacteria< 10 cfu/gColiforms< 10 cfu/gE. coliNot measurableSalmonella Negative in 25 gStaphylococcus aureus< 100 cfu/gStreptococcus< 100 cfu/g

Quality Kernels shall be completely free from infestation or living pests, molds, insect damage, rotting, deterioration, mold ran-cidity, adhering testa, and objectionable extraneous or foreign matter. Scraped and partially shrivelled kernels also permitted provided such scraping/shriveling does not affect the charac-teristic shape of the kernel.