Feed managers and agricultural supervisors from Kansas, Minnesota and Ohio are attending the “Feed Safety and the Development of an HACCP Plan” short course this week at Northern Crops Institute on the NDSU campus.
The course focuses on the development of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) for all sectors of the feed industry, including ingredient suppliers and finished feed manufacturers. During the week, participants will develop a template that they can take back to their company to integrate into their safety program.
Matt Frederking, International HACCP Alliance lead instructor, is the guest instructor. He is the safety and compliance manager at Frontier Ag Inc. of Oakley, Kan.
The systematic preventive approach to food and feed safety addresses physical, chemical and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection. HACCP is used to identify potential food and feed safety hazards, so key actions can be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of the hazards.
Kim Koch, manager of the NCI feed center, coordinates the course. “HACCP is a process that offers protection from hazards. It had been a voluntary program in the U.S. feed industry. With the new Food Safety Modernization Act that was passed in early 2011, food or feed manufacturing facilities need two separate documents on site — a written hazard analysis and a written hazard mitigation plan,” Koch said. “HACCP can be used in creating both of these documents — from identification of hazards to dealing with noncompliant events and verification of a return to compliance. The food industry has used this process for 30 years or more, but it is newer to the feed and pet food industries. The Food Safety Modernization Act seeks to allow for safer global trade with fewer restrictions.”
The short course is co-sponsored by the American Feed Industry Association.
“This program underscores NCI’s commitment to promoting regional animal agriculture and the use of northern grown crops to produce high quality feed for livestock, both domestically and internationally. Safety is a top concern,” said Brian Sorenson, director of Northern Crops Institute.
The institute supports regional agriculture and value-added processing by conducting educational and technical programs that expand and maintain domestic and international markets for northern-grown crops. It is funded by the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota and commodity groups in those states and Montana. For more information, visit www.northern-crops.com.