CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT ON CHAIN QUALITY ASSURANCE OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

The paper speaks about development of curriculum and multilevel training system for qualifications named “assistant/supervisor/fellow” or “specialist/expert/special engineer in food chain quality assurance”. For assistant/supervisor/fellow titles the applicants must have secondary school qualification to enter while the other one is a postgraduate university level course for those having undergraduate degree in agricultural, food, bio- or related sciences. In the first 2 semesters the curriculum is same for both but the 3rd semester is for the specialists only. Former one is to be finished with a closing examination and the exam questions are specified by either the National Adult Education Institute or the University depending on which of them delivers the certification. For specialist/expert/special engineer title students must submit and defend thesis too. The training provides competence on development, updating, validating, application, documentation handling, verification and modification of quality management systems. Curriculum is based on two managerial principles namely “Food chain perspective” and “Techno- managerial approach”. The modules involved in the curriculum are as follows. Fundamentals for both qualifications: (1) Food safety; (2) Food quality; (3) Food hygiene; (4) Food Quality management; (5) Food Logistics; (6) Food legislation; (7) Food Informatics. (8) Food chain environment; (9) Food chain technologies; Special core modules for both qualifications: (10) Food chain process and quality control; (11) Food chain safety management, ISO 22000, HACCP; (12) Food chain quality management, ISO 9000; (13) Food chain environment management, ISO 14000; (14) Supply management systems, GLOBALGAP, IFS, BRC. Special core modules for specialist qualification: (15) Food product production quality assurance; (16) Food product processing quality assurance; (17) Food product distribution quality assurance; (18) Food product environment assurance; (19) Food product hygiene assurance. The curriculum has been accredited by University Senate on behalf of Hungarian Accreditation Committee.