Does everyone on the food safety team have to be HACCP Certified?
Does everyone on the food safety team have to be HACCP Certified? We have a position that is a safety and quality lead, she works with production to ensure that paperwork is being completed properly and that SOPs and GMPs are being followed. She is not the SQF backup, but assists in carrying out the plan on the floor. This person does a lot of cleaning, organizing, temping, weighing, printing, and scanning. The position is new to us and evolving. In the past, the person was HACCP certified and only once I used the person in that position to help me revamp our HACCP plan because no one else was available. I;m not sure if the training was of benefit or not since I let the rewrite and asked for input. I, myself and HACCP, PCQI, and SQF trained. We are a very small company, 12-15 employees total and the food safety team consists of me, the plant manager, one owner and the safety and quality lead.
So my question is, does everyone on the food safety team require a HACCP certification or can I train the person in this position without having them go through an actual training course?
No they don't. We are also a small plant and only two of us are certified.
Hi Polly
I would think this would depend upon which standard you are accredited to & if your customers have specific requirements?...
BRC states that the team leader shall have in depth knowledge of HACCP & be able to demonstrate competence & experience - so a qualification such as yours would suffice
Team members shall have specific knowledge of HACCP and relevant knowledge of product, process & associated hazards - so in house training (signed off) should suffice.
Even the UK retailers, who are notoriously picky and global food manufacturers that we supply to, seem satisfied with this so unless you have an uber picky customer who demands formal training for every team member (unlikely) I think you're good.....
Hi Polly
I would think this would depend upon which standard you are accredited to & if your customers have specific requirements?...
so unless you have an uber picky customer who demands formal training for every team member (unlikely) I think you're good.....
We are an SQF level 2 facility. We have one very picky customer, but so far there has not been mention of required certifications from them.
Thank you for the information. :)
Your food safety team members must be HACCP trained only and this could be done one of the certified HACCP people.
I agree with everyone's posts that formal certification should not be required in this scenario, and have historically taken the same approach of delivering in-house training myself.
But online training is so cheap and widely available these days that we've taken the approach that everyone in a role that impacts on QA, supervisory level or higher at production, all of the development team etc. now get Level 2 certification in addition to their internal training.
Training used to be expensive, require time out of work, travel and accommodation costs etc, but with this now costing £20-30 per person I can't really see any reason not to do it if you've got a small team.
Only caveat I'd add is that you may need to shop around and trial a few different providers to find one that is good, but then that's the case with any form of training ;)