Ready-to-Eat Meats Online Course: Assessing the Food Safety Risks

This self-directed course was developed for public health inspectors and focuses on micro-, small-, and medium-sized ready-to-eat meat production operations. There are nine modules to complete and the course is free of charge for everyone.

Introduction 

Developed specifically for public health inspectors (PHIs), this online, self-directed course focuses on micro-, small-, and medium-sized ready-to-eat (RTE) meat production operations. In general, smaller RTE meat production facilities are not federally registered with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency but are inspected by PHIs from a provincial agency or local health department. Increasingly, operators of food premises such as restaurants are producing RTE meat products in-house. Many of these operators have limited technical food safety knowledge of RTE meat products, and have limited in-house capacity to test ingredients and final products. As such, PHIs are often the primary resource for technical food safety information for operators of these facilities. 

Launched in December 2017, this course was adapted from an in-person course developed by the BC Centre for Disease Control in collaboration with regional health authorities in BC. The modules will cover basic processes used in the production of RTE meat products, the associated kill/control steps, and critical limits for these steps. 

Learning Objectives

The purpose of this course is to provide guidance to regulatory personnel who have the responsibility to inspect facilities which produce ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products. The aim is to enable participants to assess the food safety risks commonly associated with micro-to-medium-sized facilities.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Understand the general principles of RTE meat food safety assessment
2. Know the types of questions to ask when conducting inspections of RTE meat production facilities
3. Have a better understanding of common RTE meat production processes, and the associated critical control points and critical limits
4. Understand the food safety and general sanitation concerns in RTE meat production

Course Content

• Module 1: Introduction to RTE Meats
• Module 2: RTE Meat Food Safety Assessments
• Module 3: Fermentation
• Module 4: Curing
• Module 5: Cooking
• Module 6: Drying
• Module 7: Other RTE meat production processes
• Module 8: Trichinella Control & Product Labeling Regulations
• Module 9: Environmental Hygiene & Outbreaks

Time Commitment

This course will take approximately 6-8 hours to complete. It can be completed at the learner’s pace and can be resumed at any time.

Cost

FREE!

Continuing Education Credits

This course is approved for six (6) PDHs under the CIPHI Council of Professional Experience (CoPE) program (Approval #CPC-2017-024R). You will receive a Certificate of Completion upon successfully passing all the course module quizzes. Completion of the Course Evaluation Survey is required in order to receive the certificate. 

Course Registration

Please click here to register and begin the course. Check your spam folders if you did not receive a registration confirmation e-mail. 

Citation

National Collaborating Center for Environmental Health. Ready-to-eat meats online course: Assessing the food safety risks. Training and education.  Online course. Vancouver, BC: National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health; 2018. Available from: https://ncceh.ca/ready-eat-meats-online-course-assessing-food-safety-risks.