Food Safety Trainings in the Dominican Republic

By Marce -
Dr. Barakat Mahmoud recently returned from the Dominican Republic where he completed a Farmer to Farmer assignment focused on food safety. During Dr. Mahmoud's first few days he visited various packing houses in the Santiago area.  After his initial visits, Dr. Mahmoud led a two day workshop for packing house managers, students, producers and professors at the Instituto Superior de Agricultura (ISA). The ISA University is one of the few in the country that offers a concentration in food safety.   Some of the topics he covered included Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GHP).
Visiting a Local Packing House

During his second week, Dr. Mahmoud worked with extension agents from ADESJO in San Jose de Ocoa and Sur Futuro en Padre las Casas. Some of the topics in the workshops included fresh produce safety hazards, surveillance of foodborne illnesses, site selection, fertilizer and pesticide safety.  Good Handling Practice topics included the areas of harvesting, cooling, packaging and storage.


Dr. Mahmoud at the ISA University

* Dr. Mahmoud is an Assistant Professor of Food Safety/ Microbiology and Extension Specialist at Mississippi State University.  His research work has covered bacterial food borne pathogens, non-thermal novel technologies/ processes to reduce the risk of food borne illnesses and control spoilage micro-organisms. 


Comments

  1. AnonymousThursday, September 13, 2012

    GAPs and GHPs are very important programs to ensure our food safety supply! More people need to learn about these Science-based programs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Barakat Mahmoud, PhDFriday, September 14, 2012

      Absolutely, this why we are travelling abroad to teach people! We also hope to start teaching these programs to the "Produce Industry" in Mississippi soon!

      Delete
  2. Food hygiene certificateWednesday, October 24, 2012

    You are doing a great job for food safety. To make it plain and simple, it's a matter of life and death! You can get sick from eating food that was not handled properly. It can even lead to death. So food safety is important for our health as well as all those that are eating the same food.

    ReplyDelete

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