Jason Wan, IFSH Associate Director, FSPCA Director, Professor of Food Science; Brian Schaneberg, IFSH Executive Director receiving the award

The Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH) was awarded the 2023 Food Safety Award from the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) at the 2023 IAFP Annual Meeting on July 19 in Toronto, Canada.

Established in 2011, the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) is an internationally recognized and trusted source for training programs and outreach for the prevention-oriented standards of the United States Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

“FSPCA has trained more than 3,000 lead instructors from 78 countries who are now using the FSPCA curricula to train industry personnel on food safety preventive controls principles and practices,” says Dr. Jason Wan, Director of FSPCA, Associate Director of IFSH and Illinois Tech Professor of Food Science. “More than 177,000 food safety personnel from 131 countries have been trained using the FSPCA standardized and core curricula. These individuals are now assisting the industry in producing safe food all over the world.”

IFSH is the lead management organization operating the FSPCA, with the International Food Protection Training Institute and the Association of Food and Drug Officials as management partners. FSPCA’s Advisory Board and committees are a true public-private partnership with active representation from industry, academia, and government.

Since its founding, FSPCA’s accomplishments include initiating, developing, completing, and successfully implementing standardized training curricula on Preventive Controls for Human Food (PCHF) and Preventive Controls for Animal Food (PCAF) that are recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the only standardized training curricula for human and animal food. It has also developed a comprehensive set of policies and procedures to ensure consistently high-quality lead instructor and participant courses. The FSPCA annual conference—since 2017—draws attendees and speakers from more than 20 countries. In addition, FSPCA has conducted hundreds of PCHF, PCAF, Foreign Supplier Verification, and Intentional Adulteration Vulnerability Assessment lead instructor courses.

“The jury was impressed with the organization’s preeminence in and contributions to the field of food safety, and feels it is a worthy recipient of this prestigious award,” IAFP Executive Director Lisa K. Hovey stated when informing the team of the award.

“IFSH is honored to receive this prestigious award from IAFP acknowledging FSPCA. This would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment by all partners working towards safe food for all,” says IFSH Executive Director Dr. Brian Schaneberg.

The award, sponsored by the Consumer Brands Association, comes with a $2,000 honorarium and a plaque, and was presented publicly at the IAFP annual meeting’s awards banquet on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Toronto, Canada. In the IFSH pursuit to help support and develop the next generation of food safety professionals, FSPCA has donated the $2,000 honorarium to the IAFP Foundation.