Sprout Safety Alliance. Initiated in 2012 and coordinated by the Institute for Food Safety and Health, this alliance is developing training materials with techniques relevant to the Produce Safety Rule, specifically to enhance the safe production of sprouts. It will also develop a train-the-trainer course and develop materials to be used as benchmarks for others developing equivalent curricula.
While the standardized curricula produced by the three alliances are expected to meet the needs of most companies, there will be other instances when alternative curricula and delivery will be more appropriate, FDA acknowledges. The agency plans to fund the development of alternate training programs for targeted audiences through a range of cooperative agreements. Only curricula developed by the alliances and cooperative agreements will be those officially recognized by FDA and if other groups want to develop their own curricula, they should work closely with the established alliances, cooperative agreement partners, and the NCC and RCs. FDA will explain later how it plans to evaluate such training programs.
Cooperative Agreements, USDA Partnerships
FDA has formed a five-year cooperative agreement with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NSDA) to develop a set of best practices to implement the Produce Safety Rule. NSDA will also facilitate training programs for industry and for state regulators. Additionally, FDA will fund development of training programs targeted to “businesses that face unique circumstances and challenges in implementing FSMA,” including tribal communities and local food producers engaged in direct marketing, such as community, owner-operated, and family farms; sustainable and organic farms; small-scale processors; and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers, among others.
FDA in January 2015 announced a collaborative partnership with USDA’s NIFA to establish the National Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance Program. This competitive grant program will be geared toward owners and operators of farms, small food processors, and small fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers. The program also will fund the NCC and the four RCs.
The International Food Protection Training Institute, a public-private organization established in 2009 to address public health needs, will receive $600,000 in FDA funding over three years to establish the NCC, which will coordinate and support curriculum development and delivery through the RCs. The RCs, in turn, will be charged with understanding and communicating the range of training opportunities available to targeted businesses and groups in their regions.
In October 2015, NIFA awarded $2.4 million in grants to universities to establish two RCs. The University of Florida, Gainesville, will establish the southern region RC and Oregon State University, Corvallis, will establish the western region RC. Both will work with state and local governments, other land-grant universities, and community organizations to support FSMA compliance in the produce industry. “It is critical that we provide relevant training and assistance to famers, processors, and wholesalers, especially to those who may struggle to meet the [FSMA] requirements,” says Sonny Ramaswamy, NIFA director. “These newly established centers…will help producers and businesses across the country safely add value to agricultural products and expand their access to local, regional, and national markets.”
‘Qualified Individual’
The preventive controls rule includes the new term “preventive controls qualified individual,” which FDA defines as “someone who has successfully completed certain training in the development and application of risk-based preventive controls or is otherwise qualified through job experience to develop and apply a food safety system.” The written food safety plan that food facilities are to create must be prepared, or its preparation overseen, by one or more preventive controls qualified individuals, the agency says in a guidance document. The qualified individual is also charged with overseeing the validation that preventive controls are capable of controlling identified hazards as well as overseeing the records review.
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