An 11th-hour decision to extend the deadline for meeting tough, new food safety standards has failed to placate fruit and vegetable growers, who have described the new requirements as onerous, impractical and "over the top".

The implementation of the Harmonised Australian Retailer Produce Scheme, known as HARPS, was supposed to offer a streamlined process for selling to multiple supermarket retailers.

But, in fact, the process has been anything but harmonious with small to medium-sized family farming operations reporting they have been pushed to the brink by unnecessary red tape and extra costs.

Some of the requirements — such as wearing beard nets, banning Stanley knives and even instructing workers not to bring peanut butter sandwiches for lunch — have prompted some growers to threaten to boycott HARPS if changes were not made.

As the original January 1 deadline approached, Far North Queensland mango grower Kylie Collins vowed to "not spend another hour" trying to comply after an audit of her packing shed during the height of the harvest season.

It was a process that left her in tears after being served with seven corrective action notices, including installing a warm water tap in the staff wash basin.

"Have you ever turned on a tap here in the middle of December? In tropical Queensland any water that runs out of a tap is warm and besides, I don't know anyone who turns on two taps to wash their hands," Ms Collins said.

"I don't believe all this ticking and flicking of checklists is going to make the product any safer.

"In fact, I'm going to be so busy with all that paperwork that I won't be keeping my eye on the ball ensuring the fruit is being picked and packed for people to eat in a safe manner."

Kylie Collins using the wash basin that failed to pass HARPS regulations. ( ABC Rural: Charlie McKillop )

Blue Sky Produce manager Matt Fealy said the rollout of HARPS had been plagued by "misunderstanding, bad communication, and unclear terms of reference".

He said he was still seeking clarification, two weeks after the original deadline had passed, whether or not the new requirements applied to his business as an indirect supplier packing into transport boxes that did not end up on the supermarket shelves.

"I think what's happened is the retailers have pushed this onto the wholesalers, the wholesalers have been unclear as to who's required to be HARPs-approved and who isn't?" Mr Fealy said.

"It's no skin off their nose to just pass that down the chain … so the blanket call went out to every grower to say 'Hey, you have to be approved' and that's what's caused this uproar."

No use 'HARPing' about improving food safety standards: Pinata

Pinata Farms is a major wholesaler and owns the plant breeding rights to the popular Honey Gold mango variety, which is featured on most supermarket shelves across Australia.

Gavin Scurr hopes growers will recognise the long-term benefits but admits the HARPS implementation could have been handled better. ( ABC News: Jonathan Hair )

It was one of more than 700 farming businesses which achieved HARPS certification prior to the original January 1 deadline.

Pinata director Gavin Scurr said Pinata and other direct suppliers had been adjusting to the requirements of major supermarkets over a period of 20 years, whereas the 'step up' was far more dramatic for indirect suppliers coming to terms with HARPS.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 7 minutes 35 seconds 7 m Gavin Scurr says the industry needs HARPS because it delivers customers guarantees about quality and safety of fresh produce. ( Charlie McKillop ) Download 3.5 MB

He agreed there was scope for some "unrealistic and uncommercial" audit requirements to be ironed out.

But despite the short-term pain and emotion, he hoped growers would recognise the importance of a consistent, streamlined audit process.

"I think it's a very robust system, it gives consumers confidence in our product, which is what we absolutely need," he said.

"And some growers say 'I've been growing fruit for 20 years and never had a problem with food safety'. That's all well and good but we need to have more than people just saying that.

"We need to be able to give our consumers confidence that it is safe and it is grown to a standard regardless of where it came from and who it came from."

Deadline extended as industry comes under fire for poor communication

Late last year the horticulture industry's research development corporation, Hort Innovation, negotiated with major supermarket retailers to agree to extend the deadline for small to medium-sized growers to December 31, 2018 (instead of January 1) to make the transition to the new system.

It said HARPS was always intended to remove the imposition on industry that existed through growers having to comply with multiple food-quality-assurance programs when supplying numerous major retailers.

Tristan Kitchner, who headed up the project team, said the industry and major retailers were willing to work with growers to find a way forward but it was important to not lose sight of the benefits.

"The intent of any food safety scheme is never around being a 'tick and flick'," Mr Kitchner said.

"It's about a culturally embedded process within the business whereby food safety flows through every aspect of the business.

"So it's about ensuring the right mindset and culture around food safety and I think, in Australia, that is perhaps an area we need to do some more work on."

Sam and Kylie Collins say they want to be farmers, not office workers but increasingly paperwork is taking priority. ( ABC Rural: Charlie McKillop )

He also rejected criticism by some growers that HARPS did not apply to imported produce.

"Ninety-seven per cent of fresh produce consumed in Australia is grown in Australia and only 3 per cent is imported and so that's why domestic suppliers are obviously the main focus," Mr Kitchner said.

"And many of those international businesses that will be importing into Australia already supply retailers around the world which have extremely stringent food safety requirements, so I don't believe it's not a level playing field."

He stressed HARPS was a voluntary scheme and only applied to growers who wanted to supply fresh produce to the major supermarket chains.

He promised extra training and support, and urged growers to be involved in an open and collaborative process to improve the scheme.

Major retailers, Coles and Woolworths, would not be drawn to comment on the implementation of HARPS.

But a spokesman for ALDI Australia said ALDI was participating in the HARPS program in order to reduce the cost and complexity for growers, while maintaining a focus on high-quality produce for customers.

Suppliers no longer had to be audited according to individual retailers' quality requirements, and instead get audited against HARPS requirements, which are accepted by all major retailers.

ALDI has not received any direct concerns from its suppliers or growers. However, the supermarket chain said if any suppliers did have concerns, they could contact ALDI directly for support.

