Cheap HACCP Training for Food Contact Packaging industry?
New to this forum, I'd like to know if anyone has experience pursuing HACCP training for the food contact packaging industry, meaning a company that makes food contact packaging but does not package food; would like to talk to people that had a hard sell to management and therefore chose to find the least costly route to training, and the effectiveness of taking a cheap route.
Thanks in advance,
John
Hi John,
I actually found a training program for HACCP here on IFSQN for $50 US. It's not geared specifically toward your industry but I don't think you can beat the price, regardless!
Good luck!
~Emily~
I know NSF does training on this.. I don't know that pricing, but they ma have on-line versions of this, and they also can also do on-site training if you need to train several people, that would see you some money.
Many HACCP training programs are geared more to food producers. They talk about what kind of bacteria and viruses can be in certain foods, how to test for their presence and how to control them. You would pay extra for this and it would not apply to a packaging converter, especially in a dry environment.
More expensive does not necessarily mean better. If the training program is certified, then you can go with the lower cost one.
Your concern is well placed. The processing and packaging communities are separated by a common language and goals that obscure the differences in safety priorities between the 2 groups [e.g. there is just not that much good stuff for pathogens to eat in most packaging materials (biological hazards), but there sure are a lot of potential chemical contaminants in the raw materials of packaging (Chemical hazards)]. My own efforts, in this forum and others, to generate industry-wide data that documents the low bio burden levels in/on non-fiber packaging materials have gone unanswered.
The packaging manufacturer (in every part of the world) is obliged to recognize its risk mitigation obligations from the very beginnings of its product development processes, and ensure that all raw materials have appropriate clearance for intended food products and conditions of use. All manufacturing processes that involve chemical changes (including molecular cross-linking) must represent validated systems capable of meeting extraction requirements of governments and customers. And then of course ongoing verification of system capability with associated monitoring and controls is critical. The several HAACP courses that I have taken from certification bodies, standard holders, etc. neither recognized such hazards nor addressed their control and mitigation.
Product recall experience as well as recent BRC packaging manufacturing revisions highlight the criticality of controlling printed copy–– particularly as relates to allergens and other sensitive ingredients-- in retail packaging.
I've been through HACCP training through Guelph in Canada who came to a facility I worked at to train a team and through AIB.
I think it's important to make sure that the training is accredited. I've had a few auditors look over my certificate to make sure that it was through a training company that was accredited by a known body such as the International HACCP alliance. http://www.haccpalli.../sub/index.html