Online Education
2012 Winter Webinar Series
Our 2012 Winter Webinar Series will offer five FREE sessions for ACS members, three of which are designed with retailers in mind. The sessions are available exclusively to ACS members at no charge. The online format of the webinars makes it easy and convenient to “attend” from the comfort of your home or office.
Recent webinars:
Retailer Best Practices: Virtual Roundtable
Held on February 15, 2012
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM Mountain Time
Video will be posted online soon!
Following-up on work from the 2011 Annual Conference, ACS members are developing a comprehensive Standards & Practices guide for cheese retailers and distributors to promote food safety. To fully encapsulate all of our needs as an industry, we will want to have as many people as possible bring their questions, challenges, wisdom, suggestions, and feedback to the session so we can build and share together to identify key quality and safety standards. In addition to an expansive compendium of evolving FDA regulations, the resulting guide will reflect the best practices set forth by industry leaders — like you! This session is hosted by Hans Kunisch from GreenLeaf and Jonathan Richardson from Zuercher & Co.
Storage Temperatures Necessary to Maintain Cheese Safety (Video)
Held on February 1, 2012
Considering the variety and volume of cheeses consumed throughout the world, the incidence of food borne outbreaks associated with cheeses is extremely low. Proper cheese storage temperatures play a critical role in maintaining safe product. This session, hosted by Marianne Smukowski from the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, will explore the appropriate measures to be taken that will ensure proper and safe cheese storage.
Past Webinars:
Risk Reduction in Cheesemaking Facilities (Video)
Held on February 7, 2011
Led by Dr. D.J. D’Amico from the Vermont Institute for Farmstead Cheese
Risk reduction has always been a critical part of doing business for cheesemakers. However, with the recent closure of several cheesemaking facilities, this subject is paramount to the continuing success of our industry. ACS is proud to offer this information-packed workshop that will help cheesemakers understand the key principles involved in FDA inspections, environmental monitoring, and reducing risk in cheesemaking facilities. This session, led by Dr. DJ D’Amico, Senior Research Scientist at the Vermont Institute of Artisan Cheese, will immediately equip you with valuable information to utilize in your daily cheesemaking operations.
Preparing a HACCP Plan (Video)
Held on February 25, 2011
Led by Ranee May from Falcon Dairy Food Plant at UW-River Falls and Marianne Smukowski from the Center for Dairy Research at UW-Madison
Ranee May and Marianne Smukowski will walk you through the vital steps of preparing your company’s HACCP plan. This workshop will provide you with tangible tools for identifying your potential hazards, and will explain how you can take the steps needed to ensure food safety in your cheesemaking facility.
Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and Product Liability (Video)
Held on Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Led by Ken Odza from Stoel Rives, LLP
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law January 4, 2011, is the most significant overhaul of the nation’s food law in at least 70 years. Whether or not the law improves food safety, the law has consequences for every cheesemaking facility. Many of the FSMA’s provisions, including FDA record access and mandatory recall, are effective immediately. Cheesemakers will need to take immediate steps to review and, where necessary, modify SOPs, policies, and procedures. Overlaying the new regulatory structure is state product liability law that brings serious financial consequences to cheesemakers for exposure to food-born pathogens by consumers. Ken Odza leads the food liability practice at Stoel Rives LLP and will lead a discussion of (1) what the FSMA means in the short and long term for every FDA regulated facility and (2) some basic strategies to minimize products liability and recall exposure.