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The Vermont Cheese Council will hold a two day Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) training for cheesemakers and cheesemaking operations. Dates: Wednesdays, October 6 and 13, 2010 Time: 9:30am-4pm Location: Provisions International, 42 North Main Street in White River Junction Cost: $100 ($50/day) To register: email Rachel Fritz Schaal or call 866.261.8595 Participants will: Develop a HACCP plan from milk though packaged cheese Conduct a hazard analysis Identify Critical Control Points (CCPs) and set critical limits Monitor CCPs and establish appropriate corrective actions Validate your CCPs and verify your HACCP plan Accredited by the International HACCP Alliance, the course will teach you how to develop, implement and manage a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan for your cheese making operation. Everyone who completes the course will be certified to develop a HACCP plan for their farm or for another farm. Course instructor, SCOTT DONNELLY, Ph.D. is a product safety authority with over two decades of food industry experience. His areas of expertise include food microbiology, foodborne illness investigations, laboratory operations, analytical method development, and HACCP. Spaces in the course are limited to 20 people. Thanks to generous support from NE SARE, we are able to offer this training at a greatly reduced rate. Please sign up ASAP to assure your place. WHY TAKE A HACCP COURSE NOW? Each year, an estimated one in four Americans will get sick from tainted food and about 5,000 will die (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)…so far NONE from cheese made by Vermont cheese makers. However in response to growing concerns over foodborne illnesses (like the recent egg recall), the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) is under consideration by the Senate, following passage of similar legislation by the House last year. The main goal of the legislation is to enhance the authority and resources of the FDA to monitor and prevent foodborne illness outbreaks. While amendments have been proposed that would exempt small and direct marketing farmers from some sections of the bill requiring hazard analysis planning and prevention systems, the future is clear: whether from the federal government or from distributors, HACCP based food safely risk management planning and documentation is a coming reality. The Vermont Cheese Council has been following these developments for some time now, encouraging cheesemakers to be pro-active in assuring food safety in their operations and supporting risk management education as part of VIAC’s Cheesemakers Certification programs. Develolpment of HACCP plans and related monitoring and verification so that the producers best food safety practices are documented will benefit cheesemakers (fewer lost batches and improved quality), distributors and consumers (assurance of safety controls), and Vermont’s growing cheese industry (our first class image).