CALAMBA CITY, Laguna --The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will launch on June 8 the unified food safety training modules at the Titanium Auditorium, MIRDC DOST Compound Bicutan, Taguig City.
According to Rochelle Cruz of the Public Affairs, Relations and Communication Unit (PARCU)-DOST Calabarzon Region, the unified food safety training modules will be the standard training materials to be used in 17 DOST regional offices in the country.
The modules, she said, consist of training presentations, teacher’s manual, learner’s manual, and examination booklet on the three components of food safety: Food Safety Hazards, Basic Food Hygiene, and Good Manufacturing Practices.
Cruz said that food business classified under the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that need assistance on food safety shall benefit from these modules.
The training modules are the products of DOST Calabarzon’s project, spearheaded by Regional Director Dr. Alexander Madrigal titled, “Harmonization of Food Safety Training Modules for Food Manufacturing,” which was funded by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD).
The training modules are part of DOST’s efforts pursuant to Republic Act 10611, or the “Food Safety Act of 2013,” which aims to strengthen the country’s food safety regulatory system to protect consumer health and facilitate market access of local foods and food products.
In view of this, Madrigal has initiated the training modules as the DOST’s necessary components to ensure continuous provision of assistance to food supply chains for them to comply with the food safety requirements and regulations.
Under Section 31 on training, the food safety law provides that “skills training and other instructional/educational activities shall be regularly provided to food business operators, food handlers and to government personnel.”
Cruz said that during the presentation of Action Plans in the Food Safety training in Singapore, which ran from April 2016 - March 2017, the multi-agency participants from the Philippines acknowledged that the modules being used were different across the regions in terms of focus on topics and references.
It was then that the participants had committed to unify the modules so that the topics that they discussed were uniform anywhere they taught in the country.
Before the development of modules, a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) was conducted by each region to determine the needs of MSMEs in terms of technical assistance through training.
Feedbacks were incorporated by the consultants to ensure that their needs will be met.
Besides the TNA, the Unified Food Safety Modules were also developed using gold standard references to ensure that the information are up-to-date.
The references include the Food Establishments - Code on Sanitation of the Philippines, the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, and the Codex Alimentarius - General Principles of Food Hygiene.
According to Cruz, the project was made in collaboration with DOST Regional Offices, DOST- Industrial Technology Development Institute, DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute, Department of Health, Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Alonzo A. Gabriel, the project consultant together with his team from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the University of the Philippines Diliman. (PNA)
