FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) was introduced by US FDA which was signed into law on 4th January, 2011 by President Barack Obama. FSMA has been addressed as the most fundamental change established by US FDA to food safety regulations.
FSMA strongly emanates the new food generation such as GMP-s and HACCP threaded through the principles of, “Anticipating 🡪 Preventing 🡪 Validating”. FSMA mainly aims to regulate the route of food products from farm-to-fork so as to promote and safeguard public health.
About FSPCA
FSPCA an acronym for Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance which was initiated under FSMA in 2011.
The clear intentions behind introduction of FSPCA were to convey training programs to both domestic and foreign food industry so as to effectively train individuals about the compliance criteria of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation – Hazard Analysis and Risk‐based Preventive Controls for Human Food.
About FSPCA approved PCQI
PCQI stands for Preventive Control Qualified Individual and as per the definition, PCQI is: “A qualified individual who has successfully completed training in the development and application of risk‐based preventive controls at least equivalent to that received under a standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by FDA or is otherwise qualified through job experience to develop and apply a food safety system”.
[Ref: Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulation Part 117; 117.180 (c) (1)]
Role & Importance of PCQI
Every US FDA regulated food industry is required to have at least one PCQI in all the companies (manufacturing food and dietary supplements) as a part of food safety team, for efficiently creating and managing a FSMA-compliant food safety plan and thus, implement the same. Hence, PCQI-s are quite many times quoted as, “The heroes of Food Safety Plan”
Key Responsibilities of a PCQI:
To perform or oversee, the following:
- Food Safety Plan preparation
- Preventive controls validation
- Review of records
- Reanalysis of Food Safety Plan.
About the Training Course
The training is required to be accomplished in 2.5 days i.e. 20 hours. Food Cognizant has been conducting the FSPCA approved PCQI training so as to enable individuals to explore different aspects of food product and processing to make the training more fun and worth learning by keeping into considerations the important elements of Good Manufacturing Practices and risk‐based food safety principles.
We have always thrived to provide brainstorming sessions including group discussions that provide frequent opportunities for understanding Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation requirements.
Benefits of a PCQI Training
- Better understanding of federal regulations
- Gain knowledge from trained instructors about risk-based hazards assessment
- Enhance documentation skills
- Explore preventive control through group discussion
- Experience through brainstorming exercises
- Fuelling audit understanding and process
- Knowledge of creating Food Safety Plan as well as relevant resources.
We have always strived to provide fascinating training sessions to make the rigorous 20 hours turn into the fruitful one’s of learning and exploring. Nevertheless, we have propitiously stood our ground to help all our valuable trainees to excel at all walks.
