Establishing The International Food Protection Training Institute (ifpti) As The National Coordination Center For Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach, and Technical Assistance

Project Summary / AbstractUnder this award, the International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofitorganization headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, will be established as the NationalCoordination Center (NCC) for Food Safety Training, Education, Outreach, and Technical Assistance.As the NCC, IFPTI will provide overall leadership for support and coordination of Regional Centers(RCs) created under separate funding.Specifically, the FDA/NIFA program will address the needs of owners and operators of small andmedium-sized farms, beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, small on-farm processors,and small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers. These key target audiences may havelimited access to adequate and affordable food safety training, education, and technical assistancenecessary to help them: 1) comply with new requirements under FSMA related to produce safetystandards; and 2) establish appropriate produce safety measures consistent with existing guidanceand industry best practices.As the NCC, IFPTI will: establish standardized system for the development of competency-basedproduce safety training curricula for the intended audiences; oversee the design, development, anddelivery of competency-based produce safety training for the intended audiences; oversee creationof a cadre of produce safety trainers; equip the produce safety trainers with the competenciesnecessary to be effective instructors via the IFPTI Instructor Skills Training course and the IFPTICourse-Specific Instructor Training course; maintain frequent communication with RCs,stakeholders, and FDA program staff via site visits, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, andwebinars; oversee the creation and implementation of all program assessment and evaluationtools; collate regional impacts into an overall annual national impact report; serve as an informationand communication liaison between FDA and the RCs; and identify and recruit food safety and foodindustry professionals to act as informational resources to existing and future RCs.