Nearly 50 dairy companies have sent their dairy plant professionals to “Microbiological Testing: A Hands-on Food Safety Course,” which was designed to help them stay up to date with good laboratory practices and techniques and enhance the skills necessary to build a strong food safety program. Hosted by IDFA and Chestnut Labs, the course integrates classroom presentations, demonstrations and hands-on activities to improve attendees’ comprehension of microbiological testing.
“With today’s increased scrutiny on food safety, IDFA is pleased to see so many dairy professionals taking advantage of this excellent training curriculum,” said John Allan, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and international standards. “If your company hasn’t participated yet, the next course would be a great opportunity.”
The upcoming course, Nov. 1-3 in Springfield, Mo., will allow attendees to hone critical food-safety testing skills in a real-world lab experience as they learn to:
- Understand basic food microbiology, including common terminology and factors affecting microbial growth and survival in a dairy plant;
- Control pathogens of concern, based on manufacturing environments;
- Interpret certificate-of-analysis results;
- Comply with Food Safety Modernization Act regulations; and
- Use pathogen environmental monitoring (PEM) principles to design a robust PEM program.
Attendees will also learn techniques for proper plating, reading and interpreting common indicator microorganisms, preventing common mistakes in microbiological testing, choosing correct test methods and performing internal lab audits.
Visit the course microsite to register.
For more information, contact Allan at jallan@idfa.org.