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New Sanitation Course Offered Online for Farmstead Dairies

DEC. 17, 2004--A new online General Sanitation course for farmstead dairies will be offered by the University of Wisconsin-River Falls for six weeks starting Feb. 7, 2005.

This short course will help participants understand the uniqueness of their food processing establishment to help ensure that proper sanitation programs are conducted in the facility. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board provided funding for initial development of the course.

The course is taught by Ranee May, an instructor in the UW-RF department of animal and food science, who manages the UW-RF Dairy Pilot Plant. She has offered the short courses to small dairy producers for 15 years through traditional classroom instruction. In addition, May has extensive experience providing custom training to dairy companies in the upper Midwest as well as individualized programs for international groups.

The online course will cover the same material in a traditional course, but in a more flexible format. Participants work at their own pace and complete the coursework as their time and schedule permits. Participants will need an Internet connection, a web browser and an e-mail address. Students will communicate with the instructor and each other through e-mail and/or discussion boards.

Participants will develop a comprehensive Standard Sanitation Operating Procedures paper, called an SSOP. The SSOP enhances Good Manufacturing Program practices, and both are considered prerequisites for a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) System. When sanitation programs are in place, HACCP can be more effective because it can concentrate on the hazards associated with the food or processing rather than the plant environment.

After completing the course, participants will be able to define technical terms and explain their relationship to sanitation; find and interpret pertinent literature regarding sanitation; critique situations and make suggested corrections; and design an SSOP for their processing establishment.

The General Sanitation course is being offered to meet the needs of the growing numbers of dairy artisan producers across the state. The course may be used as the continuing education component necessary for Wisconsin licensure and certification programs. A certificate of completion will be issued at the end of the course.

UW-RF also offers three of the five basic courses required for the Wisconsin Cheesemaker’s license and approved by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, including the Basic Cheesemaker’s Short Course, the Pasteurization Short Course for Operators, and Producing Safe Dairy Products.

To register for the course or for more information other dairy short courses, please contact Ranee May at 715-425-3704 or ranee.j.may@uwrf.edu. Registration for the General Sanitation course is required by Feb. 1, 2005; cost is $250.

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