02 Apr SFPA University 2024 Launches With Three Important Webinar Sessions
Important Learning For Plant & Management Personnel
Clemson Professor Scott Whiteside to lead three important SFPA University learning events.
Mark your calendars and tell us you want to participate in three SFPA University webinars coming in the first half of 2024. Led by Professor Scott Whiteside of Clemson University, the sessions will be of particular interest to plant personnel as well as those involved in product and packaging integrity.
SFPA University is an important benefit of SFPA offering free learning sessions for its member company’s employees. The sessions are offered online to reduce travel time and costs associated with off-site training. Each session is offered at 2pm EDT enabling plant personnel shift workers to end their workday with the learning session or second shift personnel to view. The sessions will also be recorded for use anytime following the session. Last year’s online sessions involving human resources drew more than 70 participants as several members gathered employees in groups to participate in the sessions.
This year, SFPA Associate or Processor members can sponsor an SFPA University session at $300 per session. Each sponsorship will include the company’s logo and a description of the sponsor’s services and their benefits to SFPA members. Contact Kay Rentzel (kayrentzel@sfpafood.org) at least two weeks prior to an SFPA session if you are interested.
Session One, April 24th, 2pm – Food Safety Insights, FSMA
The first learning session of the year will cover important updates and insights on food safety and the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). “Nothing is more important than assuring that the foods we provide to consumers is safe,” says Scott Whiteside. This session will cover the key components of assuring food safety, recent examples of how food contamination case studies and an update to the latest advancements in FSMA.
About 48 million people in the U.S. (1 in 6) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a significant public health burden that is largely preventable.
“Few things can be more damaging to a food company’s reputation than being responsible for getting people sick or having a recall due to a food safety issue,” Whiteside says. “This session will be an important one.”
Session Two, May 24th, 2pm – Shelf Life Study Design
“At Clemson, we get a lot of questions from food manufacturers involving how to determine the shelf life of their products and how to extend shelf life, especially those that involve flexible packaging,” say Whiteside. “This session will cover the multiple factors involved in the degradation of foods in packaging and how to design a shelf life methodology for particular products manufactured by our processor members.” This session will be of particular interest in those involved in packaging, research and development and new product development.
Session Three July 17th, 2pm – Packaging Integrity
“We have an entire laboratory at Clemson dedicated to testing package integrity, so our insights are unique on the topic,” says Whiteside. This session will offer important information on how to protect products from transport damage which can save SFPA member processors a lot of money each year. The session will be of particular interest to those who select or procure packaging materials and those involved in packaging within a plant and logistics.
Contact Kay Rentzel To Sign Up For These SFPA University Sessions!
Be sure to contact SFPA Executive Director Kay Rentzel at kayrentzel@sfpafood.org to sign up your company’s personnel or to sign up as an individual for any or all of these three sessions that kicks off the first part of 2024’s SFPA University sessions that are absolutely free to members.