BRIDGETON, NJ — The Rutgers Food Innovation Center (FIC) has scheduled training in Preventive Controls for Human Food (PCHF) at the Kearny Point Industrial Park on June 8-10, 2016. The course includes 20 hours of classroom instruction over two and a half days. Participants will earn an official Food Safety Preventative Controls Alliance (FSPCA) certificate for becoming an FDA-recognized “Preventive Controls Qualified Individual” (PCQI) with the credentials for creating a FDA Food Safety Plan with hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls.
Lou Cooperhouse, Director of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center (FIC) stated, “Food industry training is a core capability and competency of our Center. With the issuance of new regulations resulting from the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), our Center has received numerous inquiries for training in PCHF, particularly from the very large food processing industry that exists in northern New Jersey and New York City. We are excited to now offer these classes at the Kearney Point Industrial Park, which is a great location and venue, and an easy commute for food processors in this region and for individuals that can now choose to fly in to nearby Newark Airport.”
Donna Schaffner, Associate Director of Food Safety, Quality Assurance and Training at the Rutgers FIC will lead the training program. She indicated, “PCHF training has only become available in recent months, so attendees of this course will be among the first to qualify for PCQI status. Each FDA-regulated food processing facility that is not under regulatory-required HACCP must now have a PCQI to develop, implement and validate their food safety plan as required under the 2011 FSMA Act, and the Preventive Controls for Human Food regulations that will go into effect in September of 2016 for many food processing companies. PCHF training is appropriate for food marketers and food processing managers in the functions of quality assurance, plant operations, sanitation, and other functions; service providers and consultants; public health inspectors; and also brokers and distributors.” She has taught PCHF, HACCP and various other Food Safety classes for more than 20 years, and has been through Train-the-Trainer programs by the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA), the International HACCP Alliance (IHA), the Seafood HACCP Alliance and the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) as a HACCP trainer.
Training on June 8-10 will be held at 78 John Miller Way, Kearny NJ, 07032. This is within the Kearny Point Industrial Park, and just a few minutes away from Exit 15E on the New Jersey Turnpike. A GPS link for directions is https://goo.gl/maps/2bsG7fDoU6x. Wiss & Company, LLP, Accountants & Consultants, will be a sponsor of the training program.
Participants in the June 8-10, 2016 training program are encouraged to register as soon as possible, as class-size is limited and seats are reserved only after payment of $745 is received. Registration and payment can be conducted online via a link on the website of the Rutgers FIC at
http://foodinnovation.rutgers.edu/. For further information, or to register by phone, contact Jean Mahoney at 856-459-1900, ext. 4510 or mahoney@NJAES.rutgers.edu.
About the Rutgers Food Innovation Center
Rutgers Food Innovation Center (FIC) is a globally recognized food business incubation and economic development accelerator program of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The Center provides extensive programs in training and workforce development; customized and comprehensive business and technical mentoring services; and a 23,000 sq. ft. USDA- and FDA-inspected facility that enables design, development, analysis, commercialization and manufacture of value-added food products for sale to retail and foodservice markets. The FIC has served over 1,500 clients since its formation in 2001. It has been named as the 2016 “Food Incubator of the Year” by the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA) and recognized as an “Agricultural Innovation Center Demonstration Program” by the USDA. In addition, the FIC has been designated as a Soft Landings site by InBIA, due to its focus on international business attraction, and is currently the only food-based incubation program in the world with this designation. For more information about the Rutgers Food Innovation Center, visit http://foodinnovation.rutgers.edu/.
About the Kearny Point Industrial Park
Kearny Point Industrial Park is a 2 million-square-foot renovation project dating almost a century to its origins as a wartime shipyard. From 1917 to 1949 the property operated as the Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Company. Federal was the Navy’s preferred yard during World War II, employing 30,000 people and building ships faster than any yard in the world. After the war Federal began recycling those obsolete ships, and over the next 50 years River Terminal developed millions of square feet of industrial warehousing, distribution and office space. Hugo Neu has since worked to restore and repurpose the site as a business neighborhood. The company expects to create and save at least 5,000 jobs in New Jersey. For more information about the Kearny Point Industrial Park, visit http://kearnypoint.com/.
Source: Rutgers Food Innovation Center