Problem Statement: The host organization is an Egyptian non-profit organization that was established more than 60 years ago to be a representative of the Egyptian food industry. The host’s mission is to be committed to the development of Egyptian food & beverage companies and to be dedicated to strengthening the image of the Egyptian food industry domestically and globally. The host provides technical support to its food processor members among several other services and one of the main areas of technical support is food safety and quality. Due to Covid-19, the host halted all traditional technical support activities and they are adopting now remote technical support. The host organization is requesting a volunteer expert who will work remotely and develop a technical training manual on GMP in Meat and Poultry processing facilities. The training manual will be translated to Arabic by the Land O’Lakes Venture37 team in Egypt to be shared with the meat and poultry processors electronically. Scope: As many companies and organizations around the world are having to acclimate to the new work environment and an inability to travel, the Farmer-to-Farmer team at Land O’Lakes Venture37 has been working on ways to adapt our program to the times. After some coordination between HQ, our teams in-country and the hosts we work with, we have had the chance to share out new assignments with a different focus: remote volunteering. With the continuation of work from home coupled with a lull in workloads, we thought this would be a great time to integrate this revised programming for interested volunteers. We are also temporarily pivoting our approach towards more ‘remote-friendly’ topics that continue to assist our host’s needs in-country while continuing to accommodate the availability of volunteers to assist in remote volunteering. The Egypt F2F Program is conducting a remote volunteer assignment on GMP. The volunteer expert will help the host organization in adopting GMPs in meat and poultry processing facilities through increasing their knowledge regarding GMPs principles. The objective of the 15-day Egypt based assignment is to enhance the capacity of the targeted Egyptian meat and poultry processors in order to improve GMPs. During this assignment, the volunteer will develop a technical training manual on GMP for meat and poultry Processing facilities. The training manual will be a source guide for the Egyptian meat and poultry (including slaughterhouses) sector stakeholders (including slaughterhouses) the staff of processing facilities (quality assurance, quality control, food safety managers and supervisors, etc.). Additionally, the manual could benefit the food safety inspectors/regulatory personnel and the technical support staff at the governmental and nongovernmental organizations. The GMP manual may include but not limited to the following modules/chapters: - Introduction
- Types of food safety hazards and contamination in meat and poultry sector (biological, chemical and physical)
- GMP history
- Prerequisite programs
- Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP)
- GMP rules and regulations and major differences
- Codex
- FDA
- EU
- Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) in meat and poultry processing facilities
- Personal Health and Hygiene practices
- Employee Uniforms and Work Wear
- Tobacco
- Food and Drinks
- Blood Borne Pathogens
- Lockers
- Visitors policy
- Maintenance operations and staff
- Meat and poultry processing plants construction and design for GMP
- Hygiene Zoning
- Product Flow
- People flow, access and traffic patterns
- Property and surroundings
- Plant Grounds (interior and exterior)
- Wall and Ceiling
- Lighting fixtures
- Air flow and ventilation
- Sanitary operations (Water, Plumbing & Toilets)
- Equipment Design, Construction & Installation
- Waste Containers and Utensils
- Hand-washing Stations
- Food Contact materials
- Equipment & Utensils Design, Construction & Installation
- Packaging material handling
- Meat and poultry Processing plants Operations and GMP application
- Raw Materials receiving
- Processing
- Warehousing
- Distribution and transportation
- GMP management and planning for improvement
- Auditing and self-assessment
- Planning and budgeting
- Staff training and capacity building to adopt GMP
- Appendix
- Definitions
- An example of a GMP policy in meat and poultry facilities
- An example of GMP implementation plan (step by step)
- An example of a GMP audit internal checklist
The volunteer is expected to introduce recommendations on follow-up trainings and activities, if needed. Potential for dividing up the scope into separate sections is possible should the volunteer find that contributions from others would be beneficial to the time management and outcome of the assignment. Objectives and Outcomes of the Assignment: - Objective: To enhance the targeted meat and poultry processors’ knowledge on the principles of GMPs.
- Objective: To increase access to food safety knowledge sources in Arabic.
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