Technological Solutions Limited (TSL) will conduct a three-day FDA (Food and Drug dministration) -certified Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) seminar from April 3 to April 5, at the Carlong Publishers Meeting Room, 17 Ruthven Road, Kingston 10.

A very active Food Safety Modernisation Act, which came into effect in September 2017, has since seen TSL taking steps to ensure that exporters in the agro-processing and manufacturing sectors, both in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, are complying with regulations to ensure consumer safety and the preservation of business both locally and internationally.

The seminar which forms part of TSL’s efforts in this regard, will include presenters Dr Andre Gordon, CFS managing director TSL, and George Blake, technical and audit services manager, TSL.

One of the stringent rules which came into being through the FDA is that companies selling food to the US market must have a food safety plan prepared and monitored by a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI).

This means that companies must have at least one such PCQI in place. A Preventive Controls Qualified Individual must have successfully completed training in the development and application of risk-based preventive controls, at least equivalent to that received under a standardised curriculum recognised by the FDA.

People targeted for the seminar include: food safety managers; plant operation managers; quality assurance managers and supervisors; quality control managers and supervisors; HACCP managers, sanitation managers and food microbiologists.

Companies exporting food to the United States market need to meet the necessary FDA and other regulatory bodies, or risk seeing millions of dollars in goods and production time go down the drain.

Technological Solutions Ltd is experienced in providing solutions-oriented technical assistance to various players in the private sector and support institutions throughout the Caribbean, as well as Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the European Union.