Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
(N/A)
LINCOLN,NE 68583
Performing Department
Food Science and Nutrition
Non Technical Summary
In order to successfully design and execute an effective food safety plan, food manufacturers require continuous training beyond the foundational PCQI course. Therefore, the long-term goal of this project is to help increase FSMA regulatory compliance of small and very small facilities by building their capacity to develop and implement adequate food safety plans. Specifically, we propose to: 1) Develop an advanced preventive controls for human food training curriculum; 2) Implement the "advanced preventive controls school" training initiative in Nebraska, Guam, and Puerto Rico; 3) Measure the impact of advanced training on the participants' FSMA PCHF foundational knowledge, attitudes, practices, and ability to develop and implement a food safety plan; and 4) Identify future training needs of food manufacturers in the U.S. Central Plain Region, Guam, and Puerto Rico. We have put together a team of food safety experts to elaborate and expand curricula on hazard analysis and risk assessment, validation of process preventive controls, effective food allergen management, and environmental monitoring programs. The advanced training will be taught in Nebraska, Guam, and Puerto Rico, where impact on participant knowledge, attitudes, and FSMA PCHF practices will be assessed via structured surveys. Additionally, the small and very small food manufacturers in the selected regions will be surveyed for additional training needs.The proposed project makes meaningful contributions to the food safety training of small and very small manufacturers in the US. Central Plains region as well as in US. insular areas, and establishes significant collaborations with Guam and Puerto Rico.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of this project is to increase FSMA regulatory compliance of small and very small facilities by building their capacity to develop and implement adequate food safety plans. A "Preventive Controls School" approach will be used in which course participants will gain in-depth knowledge of risk-based hazard analysis as well as process, sanitation, and food allergen preventive controls, thus providing an additional layer of training beyond the PCQI course.There are four objectives under this project. Objectives (1) and (2) focus on curriculum expansion, development, and implementation via an "Advanced Preventive Controls School" approach. Objectives (3) and (4) will allow the team to measure the impact of the new curriculum and determine future training needs of the participants. Specifically, we propose to:Develop an advanced preventive controls for human food training curriculum;Implement the "advanced preventive controls school" training initiative in Nebraska, Guam, and Puerto Rico;Measure the impact of advanced training on the participants' FSMA PCHF foundational knowledge, attitudes, practices, and ability to develop and implement a food safety plan; andIdentify future training needs of food manufacturers in the U.S. Central Plain Region, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Project Methods
Curriculum expansion and developmentazard Analysis and Risk Assessment. The participants will learn principles of statistical process control and risk assessment applied to food safety. This will enhance their ability to conduct a hazard analysis and interpret microbiological results in their facilities. The curriculum will be created based on the "Microorganisms in Foods" series by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) as well as risk assessment guidelines from FAO/WHO, FDA, USDA-FSIS, and EPA. Potential applications in daily risk management practices will be demonstrated through several well recognized risk-based analysis and decision-making tools. Risk Ranger is a simple food safety risk calculator for aiding in the relative risk estimation at different product, pathogen, and processing combinations. iRISK is as a more advanced quantitative risk calculator allowing for the consideration of processing conditions and various predictive microbiology tools by ComBase.Process Controls. The participants will learn the fundamental of product and process validation. This will provide tools to conduct in-plant validations and interpret published literature. The foundations for this portion of the course will be taken from FDA guidance documents, NACMCF (2010) "Parameters for Determining Inoculated Pack/Challenge Study Protocols", and other peer-reviewed materials. Focus will be on the use, selection, and interpretation of microbiological results: pathogens, surrogates, and indicators. Furthermore, attention will be placed on the factors that interact to determine microbiological reductions (pH, water activity, fat content, etc.) with clear examples from published scientific data. The use of microbiological predictive models as a validation tool will be addressed along with experimental validation. Lastly, statistical aspects of validations will be covered, including experimental design, sampling size determination, and data interpretation.Food Allergen Controls. Effective food allergen management requires the implementation of multi-faceted programs to prevent the presence of undeclared allergens in packaged foods. In addition to using FDA guidance that is or will be available, the FARRP faculty specialists (Drs. Downs and Baumert) will develop an appropriate food allergen control curriculum by drawing on their experience developing and delivering food allergen management training programs and their knowledge of food industry best practices. The Food Allergen Controls curriculum will provide practical guidance for developing a holistic allergen control program, focusing on the following areas: (1) How to identify food allergen hazards: common and unexpected sources of food allergens (including supply chain controls); (2) How to properly label food allergens: regulatory requirements and labeling controls; (3) How to prevent cross-contact in production facilities: receiving, storage, handling, scheduling, and cleaning practices and procedures; and (4) ow to determine the effectiveness of food allergen controls.Environmental Monitoring Programs. The purpose of this module is to introduce participants to the control of Salmonella and Listeria in their operation environment. The content will focus on facility mapping and zoning; seek-and-destroy approach to identifying of niches and sources of contamination, including persistent pathogens and biofilms; effective sanitary practices including chemical, physical, and biocontrol methods. Lastly, the course will teach participants about sampling techniques and sampling size, including the use of commercially available software for environmental monitoring programs.Course implementationLocationThe course will be delivered twice each in Nebraska (Omaha or Lincoln), Guam, and Puerto Rico during the life of the project. The first delivery will serve as the pilot course to guide modifications to the curriculum.Target Audience/Selection and RecruitmentThe direct target audience for this project is small and very small food manufacturers that need to comply with FSMA PCHF rule and therefore require to write and execute a food safety plan. The Nebraska course will target the increasing regional food processing operations. Collaborations with insular areas will ensure the content is delivered to the local industry in the corresponding location. Additional to food industry, the course will target state/territory food inspectors, extension agents/educators, and local faculty and students. The pre-requisite to participate in the course is to be a PCQI. Facility selection and invitation will be performed electronically and via phone through listservs of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, the UNL Food Processing Center, and the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The latter will collaborate with passing the information to regional MEP in neighboring states to make them aware and invite them to participate in the course. Each course session in Nebraska will target 30 participants from across the regional food industry. In Guam and Puerto Rico, recruitment will be performed directly through our local points of contact. The insular collaborators will provide logistics support for site selection, printing of materials, and intensive recruitment.The course is also open to importers that need to comply with Foreign Supplier Verification programs regulations and that want additional training. Future training modules, online or in person, will also target small foreign facilities that need to comply with PCFH.Format and DeliveryThe course will be taught in-person using a lecture-based method with examples, case studies, and group activities. When needed, pertinent software will be included in the exercises to introduce the participants to the tools in each module. All the printed materials will be provided to the participants. There are two modalities for the initiative based on location:Nebraska. The "advanced preventive controls school" will be taught in three separate courses:Principles of Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment for the Food Industry (1.5 days; Drs. Chaves and Wang)Microbiological and Challenge Studies for the Food Industry (1.5 days; Drs. Chaves and Martinez)Food Allergen Control and Environmental Sanitation (2 days; Dr. Chaves, Baumert, Downs, and Martinez)Guam and Puerto Rico. The course will be taught as a one-week long training module in the sequence detailed above. Participants in the continental US course will receive a certificate of attendance at the end of each module they complete, and participants in insular areas must complete the entire course to receive a certificate of training. The total contact time for the full course is 40 hours. Each project team member will be in charge of teaching and leading specific sections of the courses based on their area of expertise. The graduate student engaged in the project will be invited to teach portions of the curriculum to help develop her oral communication skills.