Assessing wineries' performance in managing critical control points for arsenic, lead, and cadmium contamination risk in the wine-making industry: A survey-based analysis utilizing performance indicators as a results tool.

Human health hazards appear in wine production. Wineries have implemented food safety management systems to control food hazards through Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). Wine-making industry applies HACCP by evaluating Critical Control Points (CCPs). One of the CCPs that exhibits inadequate control is the potential contamination risk of arsenic, cadmium, and lead throughout the winemaking procedure. Wineries performance level about controlling CCPs related to contamination risk by arsenic, cadmium and lead in the winemaking were analyzed. A sixteen-question questionnaire was made to achieve this research. Three indicators were calculated for training, legislation, and analysis performance components in CCPs control. Results revealed that wineries fault in analysis and legislation components. Identification and updating of legislation about As, Cd and Pb contamination risk is in starting performance level for wineries that produce less than 250,000 L/year wineries. Analysis performance level is even lower than legislation. Only one out of every three wineries possess information regarding the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, and lead in the soils of vineyards where grapes are cultivated. Furthermore, the availability of data on their available concentrations in the soil solution is even more limited. Those wineries that controlled As, Cd and Pb concentrations make it according to official recommendations using techniques based on atomic absorption spectrometry. However, there is a lack of this spectrometry equipment in the wineries own laboratories.

An Evaluation of Food Safety Performance in Wineries.

Wine production has food safety hazards. A Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system makes it possible to identify, evaluate, and control significant food safety hazards throughout the wine production process. The Prerequisites Programs (PPRs) and HACCP performance in Protected Denomination of Origin "Vinos de Madrid" wineries were analyzed. Winery performances were evaluated for every critical control point (CCPs) in each winemaking process stage, including their implementation of PPR and HACCP principles. This study was developed through a survey of 55 questions divided into 11 sections, and it was conducted on a sample of 21 wineries. The results revealed that the CCPs worst performance level are for the control of metals (Cd, Pb, As) in grapes and fungicides or pesticide control in the harvest reception. A total of 91.5% of the wineries had implemented a prerequisites program (PPRs), regardless of their annual wine production. However, there was variability in the type of prerequisite plans, training, level of knowledge of operators, and annual budget allocation. Three out of four wineries had an HACCP, although corrective action procedures and verification procedures had the lowest and the worst HACCP practical implementation. The significant barriers for HACCP performance in wineries are linked with a lack of food safety staff training, low involvement of all staff in food safety tasks, and poor application of CCP chemical and microbiologic control methods.