SEAMEO RECFON highlights halal assurance in food safety training for nutritionists in East Java

SEAMEO RECFON highlights halal assurance in food safety training for nutritionists in East Java

Responding to Indonesia’s Legislation No. 31/2019 on Halal Product Assurance for mandatory implementation in the food industry sector, SEAMEO RECFON and the Faculty of Medicine of Universitas Brawijaya (FKUB) conducted a Food Safety and Halal Management Training on 2-5 October 2019 in FKUB Campus in Malang.  Thirty-four nutritionists from various cities of East Java Province completed the training.

For the first time, SEAMEO RECFON included the halal management aspect in its food safety course since it was offered in 1992.  The training emphasized the importance of implementing Good Hygiene Practice (GHP) and Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP) as pre-requisites for Halal and Food Safety Assurance implementation in food services.

Aside from lecture-discussions on 11 topics related to food safety and halal managements, the participants experienced hygiene implementation assessment in three different food services in Malang. The participants also developed three different Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) documents as training requirements.

The training post-test results showed that the participants acquired 22.8% increase in their knowledge on food safety and halal product assurance.  The participants recommended that halal product assurance must be integrated in all food safety courses for nutritionists in Indonesia.

The training resource persons were Dr. Dwi Nastiti Iswarawanti, MSc from SEAMEO RECFON and Dr. Sucipto, Titis Sari Kusuma, S.Gz., M.P., and Adelya Desi Kurniawati, S.TP, M.P, M.Sc  from FKUB.