Specialized Materials Analysis Training

The June 2012 passage of the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA, will soon require preventive controls for companies that manufacture, process, pack, or hold human food. These companies will be required to have written plans that identify hazards, specify the steps that will be put in place to minimize or prevent those hazards, identify monitoring procedures, record monitoring results, and specify what actions will be taken to correct problems that arise. These actions were initiated to prevent problems that can cause foodborne illness, but a frequent risk in the food industry is the presence of foreign material from ingredients, processing equipment, and the environment. Although the proposed rule aligns well with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), it differs in that preventive controls may be required at points other than at critical control points, and critical limits would not be required for all preventive controls.

To establish the correct preventive measures and develop a successful program that withstands FDA scrutiny, food quality employees need specialized materials analysis training that enables them to characterize and identify raw material and processing contaminants and their sources.

Specialized Materials Analysis

The presence of foreign material from ingredients, processing equipment, and the environment is a frequent risk in the food industry. Foreign material can be a risk in and of itself, or it can be the source of foodborne illness (microbiological contamination), and can provide clues to the source of contamination. Well-trained quality employees can easily compare suspect contaminants to reference samples from the manufacturing process and eliminate or confirm suspects based on appearance. This type of training can also be advantageous when addressing customer complaints for foreign matter contamination; successful identification of foreign matter is instrumental in determining the validity of complaints and developing the corrective actions needed.

Courses on materials identification can train food quality professionals to identify the specific hazards for their facility or industry so they can ensure that preventive controls are appropriate for the risk and not over-engineered. For example, incompatible gasket materials commonly cause contamination in the food processing industry. Identifying the offending material so it can then be replaced with a more compatible material is a simple step and is an easier solution than installing filters or screens downstream and implementing routine QC checks of those controls.

Food quality employees regularly attend microscopy courses at Hooke College of Applied Sciences (HCAS) with the goal of becoming proficient in the identification of food contaminants, in particular, contamination from extraneous materials and particles.

All-Inclusive Engagement

Learning to use specialized equipment such as research-grade microscopes can be challenging, especially if the microscope brand or model used in the classroom differs from the equipment at your workplace. HCAS has found that using a blended learning approach—one that augments classroom training with distance learning from the student’s lab—is an advantageous approach for students.

A study by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development’s Policy and Program Studies Service recognized that blended learning produced a larger advantage in learning outcome relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction. This study focused mainly on post-secondary and adult learners.

At HCAS, blended learning begins with pre-course online content consisting of both narrated learning modules and fully functional virtual microscopes. The narrated modules are 25 to 35 minutes long. The microscope simulations offer virtual versions of the instruments used during the course, allowing students to review the parts of the microscope, build the microscope from its virtual parts, and engage all of the microscope parts, simulating the microscope’s function.

The hands-on portions of the courses are taught as three-day or four-and-a-half-day sessions, which follow a traditional classroom format. Each student has access to a microscope during class and is expected to successfully complete a variety of tasks related to the lecture material presented in the course. Tasks include hands-on practice, laboratory exercises, identifications of unknowns, and competency checks. Students are required to have 100% attendance during the course, participate in class, complete a student evaluation form, and complete a pre-course and post-course knowledge and skills assessment form.