Risky Business: HACCP Programs for Small Businesses

This webinar will review the first steps of creating a food safety and HACCP program in an on-going operating business. You will understand the key areas to address when setting up or modifying HACCP or food safety programs, with minimal staff.

Why Should You Attend:

This webinar will review the first steps of creating a food safety and HACCP program in an on-going operating business. The presenter will share experiences directly from the field, learned as a food safety consultant paid to set up Food Safety and HACCP programs in the area of start-up food manufacturing businesses. You will learn from real world examples and understand how to deal with food safety issues and risks that smaller companies are exposed to.

This session will focus on new businesses with a profile of SQF low-risk type manufacturing companies that want to sell to Costco, Whole Foods or any other company that requires a 3rd party audit to verify a food safety program. We will review key company decisions necessary to provide a safe food operating platform for food manufacturing, and highlight key areas to address when you are setting up or modifying HACCP/Food Safety programs with minimal staff. We will also cover potential pitfalls with HR, workman compensation insurance issues and review downstream issues that could affect a company as part of this class.

This training is intended for owners of small to medium-size food manufacturing companies, local farmers markets and family style businesses that want to put their products on the shelves of companies like Costco, Whole Foods, Safeway and other grocery chains.

Learning Objective:

• Attendees will understand
• HACCP pre-requisites and Food Safety programs: what programs need to be in place ‘right now' and which ‘can wait'..
• Strategies on how to manage or create a new food safety program while a business is fully operational and has little experience with HACCP
• Strategies in how to assess risky production line issues and establish CP's.
• Avoiding administrative or operational pitfalls and obstacles to SOP's and GMP's.
• The valuable role of complaint response.
• Lessons learned from a consultants viewpoint: take on a client or not?
• Tips and Tricks for building compliance economically.
• CFR Title 21 and the Food Model Code during HACCP program construction.
• Identify Time/Temperature exposure in production vs finished product processes.
• Identify Cross contamination issues: product transfer, finished product, work tools.
• Setting up records compliance in small offices. Multiple program compliance on one sheet.
• Records compliance with minimal employees and office support.
• Evaluating company ownership or buy-in to Food Safety program GMP's etc.
• Vendor delivery lesson- impact and costs illustrated. Approved vendor-delivered or picked up?

Who Will Benefit:

• Businesses that want to sell to Costco or other larger companies
• QA/Food Safety Department managers that want ethnic foods from new companies.
• Company Internal Food Safety staff that inspects vendors for your company.
• Auditors who review new Food Manufactures/Vendors.
• New food businesses that want to learn how to succeed and grow new business opportunities.