Food Safety Hazards and Preventive Control Education For Beginning and Early-stage Small-sized Food Entrepreneurs

The proposed outreach program aims to develop and deliver an educational program for beginning and early-stage food entrepreneurs, which will be based on Food Safety Preventive Control Alliance (FSPCA) curriculum recognized by the FDA but also cover more basic food safety principles and regulatory requirements. Specific aims of this project are to:Develop a practical and effective educational program, which is based on FSPCA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule Training Curriculum, for beginning and early-stage food entrepreneurs as a target group.Deliver the developed educational program through workshops and online resources under the pre-established Food Entrepreneurship Extension Program at University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).The long-term goals of this education and outreach program are (1) to provide easily accessible guidance and effective training for small-sized food industry to learn regulatory
requirements and principles of preventive controls and sanitation for easy transition from exemption to compliance to develop their own food safety plan under the FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule when their business grow large enough to get covered by the rule, and (2) to evaluate the efficacy of the education program by assessing knowledge gained and practices changed as a result of the education program. The proposed outreach program will improve the safety of food products manufactured by small food businesses, and lead to economic development and entrepreneurship improvement, which ultimately strengthen urban and rural community resources.