Hi, everyone!
I am new to the Flexible Packaging Industry. I come from the RTE Beef Industry, and I was the Microbiologist/Quality Supervisor at my plant. My job was to manage swabbing, sanitary design, tracking and trending of results, CAPA, and investigations, audit prep etc. Needless to say, I was always at work, so when a recruiter offered me a Quality Manager job at a Flexible Packaging Firm, I decided to give it a try. Its SQF Level 2, HACCP Plan in place with no CCP. That to me is a red flag. I just don't understand how it is possible. And being the industry, I come from, I was HACCP Certified, but that was a broad training I received about 7 years ago. We had a HACCP Coordinator at the plant, and he managed all of the documentation, the audits etc. So now here I am at my new job, and I am going thru all of the programs. Well HACCP is where I am stuck. We all know we are supposed to have a HACCP team, and I do not. They have no training in HACCP. So, I have been doing a lot of research. I need a class for them to receive their HACCP training so they can help form a HACCP team, and I need a more advanced Training for implementing and managing a HACCP plan. Normally I would go over to ZOSI, but it is all food and beverage based. While that works for me, I know it may confuse those who are going to be on the team. We basically receive film in, we either create pouches or flat bottom bags with zippers inside and ship out. We also do innolok bags too. There is no swab program because there is next to no wet cleaning, and they state that the film contacts surfaces do not touch the equipment, but it does. I have a feeling we are not in compliance, and we are all fairly new to this industry as well. (management and executive team)
So basically, my question is: what HACCP training should i get for my support staff/HACCP Team, and what HACCP Training class should I get for myself for implementation, management and verification of HACCP?
I have contacted AIB. They are 425 a person and only 4-hour classes. I was always under the impression training was 9 hours. Then I contacted NSF who seems to have a class specifically for Flexible Packaging. That is 9 hours and about 825 a person on select dates.
I figured asking the community would be my best bet. I haven't really found any black and white answers out there, and I want to do this right and set everyone up for success!
Thank you in advance for taking the time out to read my post and I hope someone responds!