Registration is now open for the next two sessions of the Dairy Plant Food Safety Workshop. They will be held August 21-22 in Los Angeles and October 23-34 in Syracuse, N.Y.

Offered by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, the workshop was developed to reinforce the industry’s commitment to effective food-safety processes and to help dairy plants meet stringent regulations that are part of the Food Safety Modernization Act. The cost is $495 per person.

The workshop focuses on pathogen-control guidelines, principles, techniques and approaches for the dairy plant and cover food-safety fundamentals on sanitation, sanitary design, standard operating procedures, environmental monitoring techniques and case studies. Breakout sessions allow attendees to practice swabbing techniques, develop sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOPs) and evaluate equipment designs.

The August workshop in Los Angeles will be hosted by Dairy Farmers of America and Hilmar Cheese Company. The October workshop in Syracuse will be hosted by HP Hood LLC.

• Register for the Los Angeles session here.
• Register for the Syracuse session here.

Several checklists and worksheets were developed specifically for the workshop and will be used during the sessions. They're available for advance download here:

• Dairy Equipment Design Checklist, Sanitation Audit Summary and Sanitary Design Checklist Notes/Pictures
• Dairy Facility Design Checklist, Sanitation Audit Summary and Sanitary Design Checklist Notes/Picture
• Pathogen Control Program (PCP) Assessment and Sanitation Audit Summary

For more information, contact Paxton Styles, IDFA meetings and educational services coordinator, at pstyles@idfa.org.