Safe cooking: process validation, live online tutor-led training course

This sector has expanded rapidly in recent years and for many products the factory cook is vital to ensure they are safe to consume. Whether it is sandwich meats, fish, ready meal components, dips or chilled snack food, the cook is a critical control point in their manufacture, and it is imperative staff understand the principals involved.

This one-day online course offers a clear and concise overview of the critical aspects of cooking and cooling (or freezing) foods and would be of interest to companies that produce cooked ready to eat or re-heat products. It is an ideal grounding for technical and quality managers, members of a quality or process development team, as well as team leaders on the factory floor.  

The course will be delivered live online over the course of one day (0900 - 1615 hours),  participants will be sent log in details for a MicroSoft Teams session. 

Safe cooking & cooling operations for chilled & frozen ready to eat or re-heated product.

This course deals with the thermal processing aspects of the food manufacturing process- chiefly cooking but also chilling & freezing. It includes a range of subjects that provide the essential technical background to enable companies to set up safe cooking and cooling processes, from the microbiological fundamentals through to practical processing guidance.

• Microbiological principles
• Oven & cooker technology
• Process monitoring, verification & validation
• Practical validation methodology & data analysis
• Calculation of P values
• Post cook considerations (including chilling & freezing)

Learning outcomes:

• Understand the critical importance of safe cooking and cooling operations in the production of chilled and frozen ready-to-eat or re-heated food products to ensure their safety and compliance with regulatory standards.
• Demonstrate knowledge of microbiological principles relevant to safe cooking and cooling processes, including the identification and control of potential hazards associated with foodborne pathogens.
• Gain familiarity with various oven and cooker technologies used in food manufacturing, and understand their roles in achieving safe and effective thermal processing of food products.
• Develop skills in process monitoring, verification, and validation techniques to ensure that cooking and cooling processes consistently meet safety and quality standards.
• Learn practical validation methodologies and data analysis techniques to assess the effectiveness of cooking and cooling processes, and make informed decisions based on empirical evidence.
• Acquire the ability to calculate P values and interpret their significance in the context of process validation, using statistical methods to assess process reliability and consistency.
• Understand the importance of post-cooking considerations, including chilling and freezing techniques, and their impact on product safety, quality, and shelf-life.