Food safety and defense

Graduate certificate

Today, companies source fruits, vegetables, grains and meats from across the globe before processing them into the products sold in supermarkets and specialty stores. Along the way, these ingredients come in contact with several people and a wide range of temperatures, environmental conditions and potential pathogens. These aspects can compromise their integrity.

Through every stage, food safety professionals like yourself assess ingredients, identify potential sources of contamination, improve packaging and ensure consumers receive something safe and ready to use. Yet, as hazards change, so do the regulations influencing day-to-day safety and emergency response.

Upgrading your foundational knowledge, the online graduate certificate in food safety and defense program equips you to take charge of your company’s quality assurance processes. Offered through Great Plains IDEA, this program trains agriculture and food safety professionals to recognize and protect food and food products from accidental or deliberate contamination. In the process, you become familiar with hazards and bio issues arising during production, processing and preparation and science-based risk management and response methods. You, as a result, learn to perform more thorough and effective checks and develop broadly applied mitigation plans.

About the online graduate certificate in food safety and defense

Food contamination can have a rippling effect. Following a report or word of mouth, consumers remind themselves to avoid a brand or product the next time they go to the store. At the same time, this incident often results in a recall and subsequent fines. These factors taint a company’s reputation and diminish its market share.

In response, all stages of the food supply chain — from sourcing to retail — seek professionals who are up to date on current regulations and prepared to implement effective protective measures. The online graduate certificate in food safety and defense program helps you grow into this role and enriches your existing skill set through concepts you can readily apply on the job:

• Learn to develop, evaluate and increase awareness of food safety and defense strategies
• Be able to identify and control various foodborne hazards, including allergens, pathogenic microbes and toxicants
• Prepare to apply Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles and other food safety defense strategies
• Delve into the scientific foundation of food safety and defense, including microbial and chemical risk assessment and analysis, and understand how to deploy these tactics in agriculture and the food supply industry
• Expand your perspective of current food safety and security issues — from temperature concerns, packaging design and microbial resistance to terrorism through contamination

Creating a more unified, educated and responsive food safety workforce, the curriculum pools the resources, research and knowledge of the region’s leading agriculture training institutions, including Iowa State University, Kansas State University, the University of Missouri (Mizzou) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At Mizzou, the Division of Food, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences has a history of graduating professionals equipped to promote health and wellness on a larger scale, including through food production, nutrition, safety and packaging innovation. 

Great Plains IDEA

Great Plains IDEA is a consortium of 19 universities offering fully online graduate programs and courses in agriculture disciplines. Students apply to and are admitted by one university, enroll in all of their courses through that university and graduate from that university. However, the online courses are taught by faculty in the discipline from several universities.

Learn more about Great Plains IDEA.