Food Safety Basics for Artisan Cheesemakers Curriculum Now Available
This self-paced, online curriculum was developed to assist artisan and farmstead cheesemakers in developing their food safety programs and complying with food safety regulations and standards. It was developed by a collaborative group of food safety and cheese experts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Connecticut, Cornell University, and NC State University. This course is intended to equip artisan and farmstead cheesemakers with basic knowledge about food safety concepts and serve as a primer for further training programs such as how to develop and implement a preventive controls food safety management plan.
This self-paced, online curriculum was developed to assist artisan and farmstead cheesemakers in developing their food safety programs and complying with food safety regulations and standards. It was developed by a collaborative group of food safety and cheese experts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Connecticut, Cornell University, and NC State University. This course is intended to equip artisan and farmstead cheesemakers with basic knowledge about food safety concepts and serve as a primer for further training programs such as how to develop and implement a preventive controls food safety management plan. There is a series of five lessons, each of which consists of an interactive learning module with professional voiceover, video, and an accompanying quiz:
Lesson 1: Importance of Food Safety
Lesson 2: Regulations and Standards
Lesson 3: Food Safety Hazards
Lesson 4: Good Manufacturing Practices and Process Controls
Lesson 5: Environmental Pathogen Monitoring and Testing
The courses are self-paced, which means you may begin, pause, continue, and finish the course at whatever schedule suits your needs. The course will remember where you left off. A certificate of completion will be available to you after you successfully complete all lessons and quizzes.
The cost of developing this course was funded by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.
Course length: approximately 4 hours
This course discusses the importance of food safety with particular emphasis on why it is critical to artisan cheesemakers. It discusses the characteristics that make products low- or high-risk for food safety issues. Finally, it gives an overview of whole genome sequencing and its implications in the cheese industry.
Course length: This course is self-paced and will take approximately 45 minutes.
Participants will get an introduction to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) that help control for food safety hazards in an artisan cheese facility.
Course length: This course is self-paced and will take approximately 1 hour 40 minutes.
Participants will learn about food safety hazards with a specific focus on microbial pathogens that should be of particular importance to artisan cheesemakers.
Course length: This course is self-paced and will take approximately 25 minutes.
This course introduces best practices for sampling, testing, and monitoring for the presence of microorganisms through environmental monitoring. You will learn the benefits and limitations of several types of monitoring test and get an overview of sampling and what to do after getting test results.
Course length: This course is self-paced and will take approximately 45 minutes.
This course provides a broad view of regulations and standards that govern food manufacturing and in particular, those that are pertinent to cheesemakers. It discusses the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO),The Food Code, and the Retailers Consortium
Course length: This course is self-paced and will take approximately 25 minutes.