IDFA is the industry leader in providing comprehensive training for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) compliance for dairy and juice products. Jonathan Gardner, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and international standards, directs all aspects of IDFA's HACCP Certification Program and encourages members to attend the upcoming IDFA Dairy HACCP Course on March 7-9, 2012, in Rosemont, Ill.

"IDFA has helped to provide the dairy industry perspective to federal and state agencies as they developed their dairy and juice HACCP regulations," Gardner said. "IDFA also helped federal and state government auditors to develop their dairy and juice HACCP training programs and materials. These government training programs now use some of the training materials, forms and practical tools that are incorporated in IDFA's course."

During the upcoming course, Gardner and Professor Steve Murphy from the department of food science at Cornell University will provide comprehensive instruction on the development of HACCP food safety programs within all dairy and juice operations. They also will explain how the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) may affect plant operations.

A longtime food-safety expert, Gardner also oversees product-safety and quality-control issues, as well as federal and state regulatory affairs, and participates in International Dairy Federation committees and the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS).

Nine Years at FDA

Before joining IDFA, he worked for nine years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He served eight years as a consumer safety officer on the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) Grade "A" Milk Safety Team. In this position, he focused on regulatory issues involving the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO) and served on several NCIMS committees, including the Third-Party Certification Pilot Program Committee, the Technical Review Committee and the Heating and Cooling Section Review Committee.

Most recently, Gardner worked in FDA's Division of Human Resource Development as the lead training officer for Grade "A" dairy and aseptic processing courses. He also led courses on environmental sampling, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) for food, food-safety management at retail and veterinary-medicine training.

Before joining FDA, Gardner worked as an environmental health specialist for the Virginia Department of Health, where he served as the liaison between the department and other state and federal agencies involved in food and dairy regulation. He inspected Grade "A" dairy processing facilities and regularly validated the processing equipment for a variety of pasteurization systems.

For more information on IDFA's HACCP training programs, contact Gardner at jgardner@idfa.org or visit the HACCP Certification Program section.  To register for the March course, visit IDFA Dairy HACCP Course.