The Knowledge Network Round-Up 2021
The Knowledge Network has had a very busy 2021. We have just launched safefood for Business, our new eLearning food safety programme for small food businesses. Our 2021 event calendar was packed with training workshops for small food businesses, Environmental Health Officers and food testing laboratory staff. We hosted various food safety webinars and produced food safety podcasts and various articles and publications.
Small Food Business Workshops
During 2021 the Knowledge Network ran various successful workshops to assist small food business in many food safety areas including:
- Practical allergen management for small food businesses
- Managing allergens through cleaning and disinfection
- Foodborne pathogens, how to control these and cleaning
- HACCP & Record Keeping
- Thermal Processing
Product Shelf-life Training for Environmental Health Officers
Throughout 2021 the Knowledge Network hosted eight online Product Shelf-life training workshops for Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) in Ireland. This training is required as food businesses are responsible for validating the shelf-life of their products, therefore EHOs need to understand the factors that influence the shelf-life of these products and verify the validation methods used by food businesses. Participants feedback post training was extremely positive with all participants saying the training was worth the time and effort and will be of benefit to them. Further workshops are planned for 2022.
Food Testing Laboratory Staff Training
During 2021 the Knowledge Network hosted four online Internal Auditing (ISO/IEC 17025:2017) for testing laboratory staff throughout the island of Ireland. These interactive workshops provided guidance on how to carry out internal auditing of testing and calibration laboratories to meet the requirements of ISO 17025:2017. The Knowledge Network also recently hosted a microbiological methods validation and verification workshop that provided food testing laboratory staff with vital guidance on why you need validate and verify methods, method validation and verification and proposed timetables for implementation of ISO 16140-3.
Food Safety Webinars in 2021
The food safety webinars that took place in 2021 included:
- Assessment of the use of meat thermometers by consumers on the island of Ireland
- Cold Plasma: a novel Non-Thermal Processing technology in the Agri-Food Sector
- Update on Shiga-toxin producing E.coli in food
- Our changing food: new protein sources and implications for the allergic consumer
- Listeria, The Law, and What Good Control Looks Like
All webinar recordings can be found on www.safefoodkn.net
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