Training for inspectors in food safety ahead of schedule

The International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) set a goal of training 1,000 officials in food protection standards during 2010.

With three months left to go in the year the institute already has surpassed that. So far the institute has trained 1,138 food safety regulators.

More than 75 percent of the trainees were U.S. federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial regulators representing 47 of the 50 states.

Members of academia, industry and other international representatives made up the rest.

This year IFPTI offered its scheduled courses and also trained personnel in regulatory agencies and industries affected by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year.

The success leads it to anticipate the training of 2,000 to 3,000 food protection regulatory and public health officials in 2011, providing federal funding is available. Officials say teaching inspectors to train others will be a particular focus.

The institute’s primary four strategic objectives are:

• Developing a training network to provide technical, management, and leadership training to regulatory and public health officials.

• Serving as the hub for the administration of a training network.

• Developing and delivering standards-based training programs not currently offered.

• Building an instructor cadre to ensure the availability of highly trained instructors within regulatory and public health agencies across all jurisdictions.

“IFPTI continues to move rapidly in order to meet the challenge of supporting the integration of the food safety system by assuring the best trained food protection officials across the U. S. and abroad,” says Gerald Wojtala, IFPTI’s Executive Director.

The Institute, a nonprofit organization, is a member of the Global Food Protection Institute and seeks to protect the public’s health by building the training infrastructure for the national integrated food protection system that ensures the safety of the U.S. food supply.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Gerald Wojtala, IFPTI