The North Central Region Center for Food Safety Modernization Act Training will host an Environmental Monitoring Course on May 7 in Des Moines. Food safety and quality professionals, including quality assurance managers, coordinators, sanitation leaders, auditors and technical staff, along with consultants advising food businesses, are invited to attend.

Environmental monitoring is used as a verification process to ensure the effective use of sanitation control measures in a food processing operation when an environmental hazard, such as Salmonella or Listeria, is reasonably likely to be present. The course will provide tools to comply with regulatory requirements for implementing effective sanitation practices. Participants will gain practical, decision-focused skills to design and strengthen Environmental Monitoring Program systems that effectively control environmental pathogen risks.

The course will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Downtown Des Moines. Participants must be present for the entire eight-hour course to earn the certificate. Byron Chaves, associate extension specialist and professor at Rutgers University, will lead the course.

The registration fee is $20 per person and includes lunch and light snacks. Participants must register online before April 22 to attend.

The North Central Region Center for FSMA Training, Extension and Technical Assistance at Iowa State University partners with regional universities, food safety centers and national produce safety alliances to support the infrastructure of the national food safety program by communicating and coordinating information within the North Central Region related to the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Produce Safety Rule and Preventive Control Rule.

For more information, contact Ellen Johnsen at johnsene@iastate.edu.

This work is supported by the Food Safety Outreach Program (grant no. 2024-70020-42954) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.