The qualified individual
Getting started means allocating resources, and every registered food facility needs to identify a preventive controls qualified individual (P.C.Q.I.) to manage the food safety process and the team that will carry out F.S.M.A. rules.
“You look for a combination of experience and training,” Mr. Payne said. Finding and training this person should be the first thing a company does, Dr. Brackett noted. “Then assemble a food safety team to work with the qualified individual to build a food safety program,” he said.
Training given this individual should be through a program approved by the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (F.S.P.C.A.). The broad-based public-private alliance, established in 2011 by a grant from the F.D.A. to I.F.S.H., consists of key industry, academic and government stakeholders. Its mission is to support safe food production by developing a nationwide core curriculum, training and outreach programs to assist companies producing human and animal food in complying with F.S.M.A.’s preventive controls regulations. The alliance provides technical assistance through training courses, presentations and webinars.
“Although a P.C.Q.I. can be otherwise qualified by work experience, education or training, it is not fully known what the expectations will be for companies that choose not to attend the approved training,” Mr. Hugo said. In addition to the P.C.Q.I., the company must ensure that food safety personnel and their supervisors are qualified to perform such activities. He noted that AIB International is an approved training provider for the F.S.P.C.A. Preventive Controls for Human Food course.
The F.D.A. put in place its Technical Assistance Network (T.A.N.) to advise industry, regulators, academia, consumers and others about implementation of the new regulations. The network is now fully operational and taking inquiries via a special page on the agency’s website, www.fda.gov, or by mail. The F.D.A.’s web site, in its Food section, carries an extensive library of fact sheets, presentations and archived webinars about F.S.M.A. regulations and how they are being implemented.
As deadlines near, a host of webinars and in-person seminars about F.S.M.A. topics are now flooding email and mailboxes throughout the food industry.
