Food safety course offered for Alaska producers

April 7, 2017

Alice Bailey



Alaska Sea Grant is offering a new class aimed at helping Alaskans understand and comply with new federal regulations on food safety.

Taught by Alaska Sea Grant seafood specialists Chris Sannito and Brian Himelbloom, the Preventive Controls for Human Food class will be held in Kodiak on April 12-14. Commercial food producers are the main audience for the course, including small, medium and large processors.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, passed in 2011, focuses on preventing food contamination rather than responding to it.

“This should make our food supply even safer. There are tighter controls on allergens and imported food products now,” said Sannito. “It will cause producers to be proactive instead of reactive to food safety. Also, under this rule pet foods will become safer.”

Sannito and Himelbloom traveled out of state last year to receive instructional training to deliver the course.

Food producers who take the course will learn how to develop food safety plans to minimize or prevent hazards. Some examples of preventive controls are sanitation procedures for food contact surfaces, employee hygiene training, environmental monitoring to verify pathogen controls, and a recall plan.

The three-day course will be taught at the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center, a University of Alaska Fairbanks facility. For more information, contact Sannito at csannito@alaska.edu or 907-486-1535. Register at http://bit.ly/2oEKFZZ.

ON THE WEB: www.alaskaseagrant.org