The United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) has begun providing onsite Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) training for food and dietary supplement companies after the successful completion of a PCQI training session for UNPA member Indena at its corporate headquarters in Milan, Italy.
 
In addition to UNPA’s PCQI training session held in Salt Lake City, and another scheduled in Boulder, CO, Aug. 16-18, UNPA’s Larisa Pavlick, vice president, global regulatory & compliance, who is a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigator, leads a team of highly experienced PCQI Lead Instructors that are available to provide in-house training for food and supplement companies that are required to have a PCQI as part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Most companies producing organic and natural foods, dietary supplements and dietary ingredients face a September 2017 compliance date to have a PCQI on staff.
 
In early July, UNPA completed a PCQI training for Indena, a leading ingredient supplier, in Milan, Italy, taught by Ms. Pavlick. Indena had 12 employees from four locations present for the training. All 12 team members successfully completed the 20-hour (2.5 day) standardized curriculum. In addition, five observers, including members of the Indena senior management team, attended the training.
 
“Indena attendees considered this FSMA/PCQI training very useful as a highly convenient way to understand the key points of this new law and regulations,” said Ernesto Marco Martinelli, group-QA manager & regulatory for Indena. “Particularly, working together as an internal team on practical examples, we had the benefit of discussing and clarifying the questions relevant to our business that are unavoidable with any new regulation. It was also important for us to be trained by a person that is an expert in this specialized field of botanical extracts, who also has expertise from her work at FDA.”
 
“Onsite PCQI training offers a number of benefits for companies, including the ability to train multiple team members at once, while in many cases eliminating travel and lodging expenses,” said Loren Israelsen, UNPA president. “It also provides attendees with an opportunity to compare notes, share ideas, collectively work through case studies and learn from business-specific, question-and-answer sessions as a team.
 
“We applaud Indena for its leadership and its foresight for economically and efficiently training a large number of staff in this crucial FSMA regulation and being ready to meet the expectations of both regulators and customers,” he added.
 
The PCQI trainings provides exercises specific to food and dietary supplements and dietary ingredients. The Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) developed the course, which is the “standardized curriculum” recognized by FDA. 
 
At the end of this training program, participants will:

• Receive a PCQI certificate of training
• Understand Good Manufacturing Practices and Prerequisite Programs
• Conduct hazard analysis and determine preventive controls Implement process, allergen, sanitation and supply-chain preventive controls
• Implement verification, validation, recall and recordkeeping requirements
• Develop and implement a Food Safety Plan for their production facility.

 
UNPA has created an article, “An introduction to PCQI,” as well as a PCQI FAQ, both of which answer key questions about who needs PCQI training, at the UNPA website.
 
For more information about UNPA’s onsite PCQI training, contact Kira Olsen, 801-474-2572. For more information about the upcoming PCQI training in Boulder, CO, Aug. 16-18, including the full training agenda, lodging information and to register, visit www.unpa.com/events.