The Food Safety Validation Workshop offered by the Canadian Food & Wine Institute (CFWI) Innovation Centre at Niagara College, in collaboration with Pathogenia Inc. (the first and only virus testing laboratory in food in Canada) and Global Food Ingredients U.S.A., was held at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus on June 19.
The day-long event focused on the principles of validation as it pertains to food processing, cleaning, and meeting regulatory and quality audit requirements, explained Angela Tellez-Lance, PhD, Research Lead at the CFWI Innovation Centre.
“The Safe Food for Canadian Regulations requires that the processor demonstrate that the control measures used to reduce risk are effective,” said Tellez-Lance. “The workshop was held to help attendees better understand how to validate their controls and comply with the new regulations.”
More than 20 participants had the opportunity to interact with industry experts and some also had their own case studies overviewed.
Participants gained insight into how to develop strong food safety relationships with suppliers and co-manufacturers using validation, verification, and scientific principles to guide decisions. They also learned about common pitfalls to look for in validation studies and how to identify potential challenges, then develop strategies for overcoming them.
Methods and examples of validation of the cleaning and sanitation procedures were also presented in the workshop; for example, a strong sanitation program has been shown to reduce the risk of a recall, said Tellez-Lance.
The speakers were experienced industry leaders that have worked for many years in processing facilities and have an expensive background in consulting and auditing. Speakers included: Dr. Angela Anandappa, Dr. Angela Tellez-Lance, and Prasant Prusty.
