2019 Training course on microbiological sampling and testing
22 November 2019
On 20 and 21 November 2019, Marcel Zwietering and Leon Gorris conducted a two day specialist training course in microbiological sampling and testing for Irish food safety experts from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
The training course was entitled “Training course on Microbiological Sampling and Testing: their Application in Food Safety Assurance” and was held at DAFM’s Laboratory Complex at Backweston, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
Aims of the course were:
- to share knowledge and practical skills in microbiological sampling and testing with the DAFM and FSAI professionals that help them to assess microbiological monitoring programmes of the Food Business Operators (FBOs) that they work with every day in their jobs.
- to provide the bigger picture of the roles of FBOs and government in food safety assurance, drilling down to the purpose and best practices in microbiological monitoring and the underlying statistics.
- to convey to participants the principles and practices of designing useful microbiological testing in the context of food safety assurance and (inter)national standards that include microbiological criteria for food lot acceptance.
- to use the ICMSF statistical sampling plan tool for designing and assessing the performance of microbiological sampling plans. This was especially the aim of the hands-on training that was done with a smaller group of professionals on day two of the course.
Thirty-five experts in total participated in the first day of the course and eleven in the second day.
Course evaluation comments received indicated that, the majority of the participants considered it a very valuable learning experience.