According to the US food safety regulations, food handling, processing, manufacturing, or holding businesses have the obligation to train their workforce on food safety and food hygiene.
There are two major food safety regulations in the U.S (HACCP and FSMA) and both require some type of training. Under the HACCP regulation it is required that HACCP coordinators be HACCP certified. FSMA Preventive Controls for Human and Animal Food rules require that each food business has PCQI (Preventive Controls Qualified Individual) available to the company. The best way to become PCQI is to attend standardized certification course developed by FSPCA. Neither HACCP nor PCQI certifications have an expiration date as current legislation does not require re-certification. HACCP re-certification may be however required by the Customer – Costco for example requires that HACCP re-certification for certain individuals takes place every 5 years.
Under the Preventive Controls for Human Food rule and HACCP regulation, it is required that employers provide Food Safety and Food Hygiene Training to all staff involved in any food operation. The frequency of training (including retraining) is not specified in the rule. Most businesses conduct employee training at the start of employment and retrain yearly thereafter.
At BD Food Safety Consultants LLC, we believe that Food Safety / Food Hygiene training should be ongoing, and the frequency determined based on Internal Audit findings. The more non – conformances related to employee practices are found, the more frequent training the company should have. E-Learning options for workforce training we offer can be very helpful in that process.
Learning Management Systems have become more popular especially taking into consideration limitation and social distancing requirements related to pandemic. Here at BD Food Safety Consultants we have developed an online LMS (DOCEO) which is an alternative to “pen and paper” training.
Online Learning is the future in employee training and studies show this form of learning is more effective. Review our Training Courses and register to HACCP, PCQI, FSVP or IAVA Training. For LMS license purchase or inquiries use this website.