Because of the importance and usage of pistachios, it is necessary to improve their agricultural situation, particularly by establishing good processing equipment and packaging units near pistachio farms. It is possible to supply a high-quality product in large quantities for foreign and domestic markets. In this research, International Organization for Standardization 22000:2005 requirements were implemented in a pistachio-processing unit. Aflatoxin B1 content was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography before and after washing, immersing pool, wet sorting, drying, temporary storage and dry sorting. After analysis of measured data, it was found that the most reducing stage in aflatoxin content was wet sorting. Washing stage had no significant effect on aflatoxin B1 reduction. It is concluded that operational prerequisite program and critical control point have no differences important to hazard control, but they are different from a type of control measure aspect.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONIn this study, the authors employed food safety management system based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22000:2005 model to prepare safe pistachios with less aflatoxin content. All process units (pistachio reception, de-hulling, washing, immersing pool, dehumidifier, goo separator, wet sorting, drying, temporary storage, dry sorting, packaging) evaluated upon ISO22000:2005 requirements. Then the stages that had more significant effect on aflatoxin B1 content identified. The quantification of aflatoxin B1 in accordance with standard methods was also explained in the paper. The authors also investigated operational prerequisite programs and critical control points in hazard control.