Food Safety – Food Allergens

About Course:

With millions of consumers affected by food allergens, consumers look to food companies to provide them with safe food products. Consumers rely on the industry to correctly recognize, process and market foods with correct labeling. Misrepresentation of food allergens can become very costly to food manufacturers and suppliers. Mishandling of food allergens are one of the most common reasons for food recalls. Currently, over 45% of all class recalls are allergen related and the numbers are not going down. According to the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA), there are 8 major allergens accounting for 90% of food allergic reactions, which include any other ingredients that contain proteins from one of more of them and must therefore declared in a specific way on food packaging

The 8 foods recognized as major food allergens by law are:

1. Milk
2. Eggs
3. Fish (e.g., bass, flounder, cod)
4. Crustacean Shellfish (e.g., crab, lobster, shrimp)
5. Tree Nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans)
6. Peanuts
7. Wheat
8. Soybeans

Allergen control is an essential part of every food safety program and required by the new FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rule for Preventive Controls for Human Foods. The Allergen Control Plan outlines controls that are put in place regarding the handling, processing, storage, packaging and identifying of allergens and the likelihood of possible locations where cross-contact can be identified. Team members are certified to a number of standards. Staff certifications include HACCP, Internal Audit , BRC, FSSC22000, SQF, and IFS. The following course will elaborate on the major food allergens and how they affect current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) and Food Safety Principles for food manufacturers and suppliers. How to create an effective foundational Allergen Control Plan and maintain it in case of changes will be explained. Participants will also learn about allergen labeling on product ingredient labels and food recalls due to allergens.

By the end of the training course, participants will be able to:

• Create a framework of an Allergen Control Plan that can be customized to your business.
• Have a working knowledge of food allergens and how they affect food production line protocols.
• Identifying facility deficiencies that can lead to cross contact of multiple allergens.
• Importance of correct allergen food labeling and food recalls affected by allergens.

The participant will receive a certificate of successful completion for the course after passing a written knowledge test following the training class.

The course is designed for:

• General management who wish to acquire a broad knowledge of Food Safety issues
• Quality Assurance / Technical and Production Personnel who have specific responsibilities for Food Safety as part of a HACCP Team
• Environmental Health Officer, Research & Development Personnel, Operations Manager