Formal Certification for a Food Safety Professional
Dear All
This would be my 2nd question on this forum.
I am working in the seafood industry as a quality assurance officer (in middle east ) Even though I brushed with most of the standards like HACCP, ISO 22000, BRC, BAP I don't have a formal certification (training) on these. :helpplease:
What would be the starting point? which certification should I take up first & from which certifying body would be good? I am willing to work hard so the more stringent the better .I heard ASQ is good but they only provide certification training in USA. :uhm:
(PS: My goal is to be a part of a certification body in few years time )
Thank you in advance.
Regards
I can only talk from UK experience. My background isn't food science but I started my training by doing the UK food hygiene courses which (at the time) started at basic and went to advanced (now there is level 1-4). Some of these courses or equivalent would be available online. I also did an advanced (level 4) qualification in HACCP. I've never had any specific standards "training" but I do attend seminars when the standards get updated which is also a great opportunity to talk to the people who write the standards. For future jobs networking is as important as knowledge.
If I was starting out now though I would probably look into some kind of postgraduate diploma as well as then it would be internationally recognised.
Thank you for your comment GMO. I have completed by engineering in food processing. Could you please direct to online courses (Link) ?
Regards
Hi Crix,
No idea what BAP is but the starting point IMO for all the others is an easy question - HACCP.
I anticipate a Food Engineering/Processing Course may/may not have included HACCP ?
If not, courses available will depend on where you are. I am not aware of any widely recognized, fully on-line HACCP qualification courses but they may exist (perhaps the next paragraph ?).
Self-learning haccp mauals are available on this forum, eg search for "advantage"
GMO's suggested scheme is, afaik, Famous and very well-established but i suspect requires considerable effort (IIRC some sample exam sheets are available on the IT, some also with answers).
IIRC, the Irish Food safety Org (fsaie) have issued a series (2-3) of detailed booklets describing a staged course/requirements structure in FS starting from a basic level. Previously posted on this Forum (somewhere).
Hello CRix,
I agree with Charles in that you should go for HACCP certification first! I don't know too much about ISO or BRC, but I do know that SQF requires that SQF practitioners (and the auditors at certification bodies) be trained and competent in HACCP--the SQF scheme is based on HACCP, after all.
From my own experience, I know that AIB International has online training available for HACCP and other topics. I took their HACCP Online class over a few days' time and found it to be adequate. Unfortunately there's no way to download the content, so you'll want to take detailed notes. AIB's website says they provide service in the Middle East. I don't know if their HACCP online class differs between the US and other locations, however.
Hello All,
Experience alone can't justify that you can be a Food Safety Compliance Officer. It is just like driving without drivers license. You can train but you can't give training certificate to other staff or process owner (ex: ccp personnel) because you don't have formal training about food safety by yourself. Auditor will always look for the training certificate from an accredited/abled body third party training entity.
regards,
redfox
It is good to see the topic - development of the skills and knowledge to become a recognized professional in food safety is a cornerstone of our industry and profession. Something more formal and globally recognized means individuals become more valuable, and the knowledge becomes transferable. Certainly HACCP is a initial step, and having a course in the specific scheme for the site helps the audit result. These two are great introductions, but one also needs to build with more depth, and more complex issues.
The more qualified the individual, the more valuable they are to the organization, and more future prospects open up. From a scheme owners perspective, we need this type of in depth background for our future auditors as well.
This has been a serious topic at BRC GS for about a year, and they have just launched "BRC Professional". It has a focus on core skills (HACCP is now a prerequisite) like Internal Audit, Root Cause Analysis, Correction Action and Validation. The skills courses are not aligned on the BRC Standards, or sales pitches for them, they focus purely on the skill set, regardless of the standard or audit mechanism in place. The intentions are to add new skills training (supply chain management and category expertise are some of the near future topics) to allow people to advance to their capabilities.
Hopefully it will be a good addition to other options for a more advanced food safety professional development program.
John
Thank you all for the valuable inputs.
So ..
1. HACCP => Decided :spoton:
2. From which certification body will be good? like SGS, TUV, SAI global, Intertek ?
Any opinions?
Regards
Thank you all for the valuable inputs.
So ..
1. HACCP => Decided :spoton:
2. From which certification body will be good? like SGS, TUV, SAI global, Intertek ?
Any opinions?
Regards
Location ? :smile: i suggest you first study the detailed itineries. And the costs. It maybe also depends if you want 1-on-1 tuition.
If you have a local organisation representing seafood industry, this may be another option, eg organised workshops/seminars. IMEX the Seafood business is very "big" on haccp seeing as it was one of the Pioneers.
Location ? :smile: i suggest you first study the detailed itineries. And the costs. It maybe also depends if you want 1-on-1 tuition.
If you have a local organisation representing seafood industry, this may be another option, eg organised workshops/seminars. IMEX the Seafood business is very "big" on haccp seeing as it was one of the Pioneers.
Location would be - middle east (KSA) or in india.
Location would be - middle east (KSA) or in india.
i predict all the companies you mentioned are active in those areas.
For India, numerous, some maybe subsidised, training courses exist, eg try googling ["India" seafood haccp training]
i predict all the companies you mentioned are active in those areas.
For India, numerous, some maybe subsidised, training courses exist, eg try googling ["India" seafood haccp training]Yes
Yes, all companies are active in India but I wanna know which of these will have a better recognition & value. I have seen many getting the certificate by paying the fees and attending the course.