USA FOODHANDLING COURSE EXCLUSIVE TO RASA MEMBERS

Caterers, Restaurant-owners, Retailers….Are you ready for 2010???
A USA National Restaurant Association “Food Handler and Workplace Sanitation” 3 day course for Restaurant, Retail Store, and Processor Managers is to be held in Johannesburg and in the Cape Jointly offered by the Food Safety Initiative of CGCSA andUniversity of Stellenbosch Endorsed by the Restaurant Association of South Africa

DATES
29 – 31 July 2008 at Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, Block B Hurlingham Office Park, Woodlands Avenue, Hurlingham Manor.
5 – 7 August 2008 at Department of Agronomy, Welgevallen Experimental Farm (close to Coetzenburg Athletic Stadium), University of Stellenbosch.

INTRODUCTION
Restaurant and grocery operators are key components of keeping food safe. More than a third of foodborne illness outbreaks are due to poor personal hygiene. Improper holding temperatures, inadequate cooking, contaminated equipment, cross-contamination and food from unsafe sources are other major risk factors contributing to foodborne illnesses. Key public health interventions to protect consumer health are demonstration of knowledge, employee health controls, effective hand hygiene, time and temperature controls, and consumer advisory notices. Most of these are directly related to food handler and workplace sanitation and hygienic practices. Most retail food operators and managers have not received proper training and thus cannot properly train their employees on appropriate food preparation, handling, and service.
The increasing awareness of consumers about food safety dictates that restaurants, caterers and stores in South Africa practice proper hygienic and sanitary practices. Most of these restaurants and caterers are small businesses that rely upon repeat customers for continued profitability. Establishments that sell prepared foods can ill afford to cause or be accused of causing foodborne illnesses amongst their customers. The Food Handler and Workplace Sanitation Course offered jointly by the Consumer Goods Council Food Safety Initiative and the University of Stellenbosch Post Harvest Technology Center will provide food managers, supervisors and establishment owners with information on safe food preparation, handling, and storage. Practice in analyzing contamination sources and hands-on experience in ensuring safe food production and service are essential parts of the course in order to prepare this sector of the food industry for supplying safe food for the Confederation Cup in 2009, the World Cup Soccer event in 2010 and beyond.

Specific topics that will be addressed are:

• concepts of providing safe food
• microorganisms, contamination, allergens, and foodborne illnesses
• safe food handling and flow of food through restaurants and stores
• food purchasing and receiving, storage, and proper preparation
• food service operations and management systems
• sanitary facilities and equipment
• cleaning, sanitizing, and integrated pest management
• South African food safety regulations and standards
• employee personal hygiene, hand washing, and employee food safety training

PRESENTERS
The instructors for the course are all food safety professionals. Lucia Anelich is the Manager of the Food Safety Initiative, CGCSA. She has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and was associate professor in microbiology and head of the department of Biotechnology and Food Technology at the Tshwane University of Technology before developing the Food Safety Initiative in 2006. She serves on the South African Bureau of Standards Technical Committee for microbiological methods and food safety standards, the International Dairy Federation Standing Committee on microbiological methods of analysis, is Vice-President of the South African Association for Food Science and Technology and also a public trustee on the board of ILSI-South Africa. Lucia is the only South African appointed as member of the International Commission on the Microbiological Specification for Foods in 2005 and more recently elected to the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) Governing Council for the period 2006-2008. She is a technical assessor for the South African Accreditation System (SANAS) on food safety management systems.  She consults and trains widely on food safety, both nationally and internationally and acts as technical expert for FAO/WHO and Codex Alimentarius. Lucia is a registered Professional Natural Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions.
Ken McMillin is a professor of meat science in the Animal Science Department at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana USA. He has a Ph.D. in meat and food processing and is a technical team member of the USAID Partnership for Food Industry Development (PFID) Project. Ken completed a sabbatical with Professor Louw Hoffman in the Animal Sciences Department at Stellenbosch University in 2007. He has given retail and processor food safety training in more than 10 countries in the past five years. Dr. McMillin is an approved trainer by the International HACCP Alliance, a Professional Animal Scientist, and a Diplomate in the American College of Animal Food Sciences. He has given more than 40 national and international presentations in the past decade and is an invited speaker at the International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, American Meat Science Association Reciprocal Meat Conference, Institute of Food Technologists, and American Society of Animal Science annual meetings and symposia this year.
Ms. Sune Botha has a M.Sc. in Food Science and Technology from the University of Stellenbosch. She is an approved trainer of the International HACCP Alliance and works with retailers and processors in developing HACCP plans and improving their sanitation and hygiene programs.
The Food Safety Initiative is an industry programme dedicated to protecting public health and consumer interests in the area of food safety and nutrition by relying on sound scientific evidence to guide decisions. The Post Harvest Technology Center of the University of Stellenbosch was initiated to provide training and research in food safety and processing for the processor, retailer, and restaurant sectors of the food industry.

CERTIFICATE
Each participant will be assessed at the end of the course and a joint certificate issued by the Food Safety Initiative of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa and the United States National Restaurant Association will be issued upon successful completion of the course.

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION
English.

COST
R 2500 + 14% VAT i.e. total of R 2850.  A 10% discount will be awarded for more than 5 people attending from the same company.  The fee includes all refreshments, a course manual and certificate.   

REGISTRATION
Kindly complete the registration form below and return to Lorraine Nadas at the CGCSA at Fax 011 919 0069 or email to ln@cgcsa.co.za.  Lorraine can also be contacted for more information regarding the course at Tel 011 789 5777.  Upon registration, you will be supplied with a full programme and a map to the respective venue selected.   You can also view this event on the Food Safety Initiative website: www.foodsafetyinitiative.co.za under “Events and Training”