Is there any mandatory certificate or courses that a SQF team needs to have besides the HACCP certificate? Our food consultant is asking to take various courses which is on the expensive side, and we are a small company and taking all these courses can be burden. Some of the mandatory courses suggested were Preventive Controls (PCQI), Internal Auditor, Handling Body fluids spills, and Food Defense Awareness for the IA Rule. Are these courses mandatory?
Nothing like having faith in a consultant eh? Anyway, let me pick this apart for you...
1. Yes, HACCP certificate for the SQF Practitioner and backup Practitioner - if there is a HACCP team they can then be given an overview of the HACCP plan(s).
2. Technically speaking no one HAS TO go for the PCQI, this can be self-taught by simply looking up the requirements and focusing on the end result - what you would have to do if an agent showed up and asked to speak with PCQI. A course is nice, but a paid for course is NOT MANDATORY.
3. Anyone conducting INTERNAL AUDITS is required to be able (qualified) to conduct these audits. If you have someone experienced in conducting these types of audits, you can simply teach the folks how to do it (in house), note on your training matrix they were trained and add a nice touch by presenting them with training completion certificates. As consultants ourselves we actually sell an Internal Auditor Training program that is rather reasonable on the cost side and inclues those nifty certificates too - however you can actually do this in house and save that little bit of money. Again a paid for course is NOT MANDATORY.
4. I know of no requirement for MANDATORY TRAINING in handling bodily fluid spills - good idea though and in a past life when I was a food safety inspector for Sam's Clubs, Target and Trader Joes and hotel inspector for Howard Johnson, Ramada, Sheraton, Hilton that training was a mandatory requirement for all management level employees.
5. I might be slow on the uptake, but what is the "IA RULE."? But as far as trainng for Food Defense - yes - so you would take a known issue that could happen and do a mock exercise with the team, document it and note them all as being trained on the matrix.
6. This would apply to RECALL for instance, training for the team again thru a mock recall - detailing what each person was responsible for, what they did, etc.
So, basically with the exception of HACCP - all other training is required yes, but can be done in house by your own personnel.
Of course, I look at it this way - here you are paying for a consultant and paying for an audit - that's a bit of change already, why not pop for some training too - it's an investment - at the same time you will have to spend labor money to train, so you may find it cheaper to do some of this outsourced - like Internal Auditor Training for instance as the costs of labor in-house may eclipse the cost of outsourced training.
Hope that helps.