Training Employers on Food Safety, I need your input..Quality Assurance/Control?
Asked by Latinguy
Hello Guys/Gals~ I work as a Quality Assurance/Control Supervisor at a food ( Dairy, Cheese, Yogurt, Milk ) plant. 98% of the production employers are Hispanic non-English speakers. This company deals with a lot of hands on packaging and hand handling the product so sanitation is of vital and major importance. Sadly, most of these employers dont get the training/education on the importance of food safety when hired. I started working not too long here so I want to work on a plan to educate these people; I believe that educating these people is the first and most important step in QA/QC for the company since they are the ones doing most of the food handling. I simply want to ask you guys for as many ideas possible on what to educate/train them on and how to go about this. I am pretty new to the food safety/QA world so all of your experience will be greatly appreciated. What should I focus on? How would I go about teaching them? Should I talk about HACCP? I know I will include GMPs, food microbiology, but what else? Sincerely, Jorge

Best Answer:
Congratulations Jorge! You are about to find out why teachers are so underpaid. Begin with the most basic part of what the employees need to know. I had to take a California state board test that included sanitation, sterilization, hygiene, and bacteriology. When I learned those things we started with what the state law requires, then learned why we needed to know those things. We even learned what diseases and conditions were possible, too. Perhaps teaching your students what diseases they can cause would be a great starting point. Open with a greeting and welcome, then discuss the illnesses and their outcomes. That should get them interested in what causes the diseases. Now you can begin teaching prevention of these diseases. Use an overhead projector to show slides of bacteria and viruses. A good look at those creepy-crawlies can inspire at least sanitation, if not sterilization. Do discuss all the aspects of this business. You might go lightly on some of the details unless you get questions from the students. You already know how challenging it is to learn all of this. From educational research we know that color and pictures create the best learning environment, so use plenty of those. Even if you have to draw pictures of bacteria on poster board, it will make your point. Use humor, too. That also supports comfort with the material for your students. Good luck with your project. You are giving me hope I can have clean, safe food.
I come from a family of educators, and have taken a lot of science classes, too.
Answered by Jeanne B

We have someone from the local health unit come in once a year to do this --We're required by law to do this
Answered by pappy12a

How is your Spanish language ability ? If you don't speak fluent Spanish, bring in some one who does, who is also trained in the food safety regulations and who can speak with knowledge and practical hands on dairy industry experience. That will cost some money, BUT how much more costly is being shut down for health and or safety violations. I'm in Canada, and this country has recently see our biggest meat packaging company, Maple Leaf Foods, all most go under, due to a listeriosis outbreak in one of it's plants here in Ontario. The company lost millions and it's products are still not trusted by the public. Would you like to be them ? If not, then spend the money to train your workers, in THEIR language, to be safe and avoid future problems. Document all the training and video the classes if possible, to verify that the training was done properly. Call it future liability insurance, just in case. Jim B. Toronto.. Ontario. Canada.
Answered by Jim B