Food Safety Tech asked Fabiola Negrón what shifts are dominating the training landscape. And “why now” for a new product, SkillUp, from Registrar Corp.

We see tariffs affecting just about everything — does this reach to food safety and food safety training specifically?

Absolutely. Ingredient quality is of course a concern as a result of supply chain disruptions. But in terms of food safety training and workforce ability to follow food safety protocols, it’s all about efficiency. As ingredients, packaging materials, equipment, and shipping expenses rise due to tariffs, food manufacturers are forced to find savings elsewhere. But food safety is not something that can be skimped on. The focus then is on how to be more efficient.

eLearning has become more and more essential in our industry. This is nothing new of course, as eLearning has been around for decades, a testament to its effectiveness when done well. It’s more about streamlining. Every once in a while, a forced re-evaluation can be a good thing. We’re finding ways to save time by eliminating some bells and whistles from bloated platforms, saving admin and facilitator time with more eLearning, as well as less time away from production.

It can be difficult to get a true sense of the cost inherent in building and maintaining a training program, not to mention the outcomes. We developed a cost calculator to try and help with this, which anyone can use. It pulls from multiple databases of industry and workforce data to provide a clear picture in just a minute or two, or you could spend a few more minutes inputting your own data points.

You mentioned “when done well.” What makes a good eLearning program?

The three biggest factors are relevance, duration, and interactivity. Starting with relevance, because presenting a learner with something that doesn’t apply to them is the surest way to have them tune out or go through the motions. This means both the topic should apply to their job role, and the content should reflect their work conditions.

As for duration, the shorter the better is always true — but, again, without skimping on content and quality. This is especially true for the foundational topics like personal hygiene, cross contact, cross contamination, and so on. As career professionals, we could talk for days on one topic alone. But for a new production worker, overly complicated analysis is not going to help them keep your facility safe. Instead, it is critical to distill the curriculum into the most effective way to ensure they comprehend what they’re learning, can recall the info, and can put it into practice. A 10-minute eLearning course will almost always be sufficient to cover the fundamentals on one topic. Ensure your team members have this nailed down perfectly before introducing more complex elements.

Interactivity is just as important. This ensures trainees do things as part of the course, which is a far better way to learn than receiving information passively. This can mean drag-and-drop exercises, role-playing scenario questions, and quizzes. The key is to keep learners engaged by doing, not just listening.

What is the biggest change in how food manufacturers can execute on your advice?

It would be impossible to answer this question without talking about AI, so let’s start there. Modern training platforms should have AI course creation built in. This is extremely helpful for things that go beyond the core principles. You can enter a source document or provide a short description, and an AI course creator will do the rest. First providing an outline for you to review, then creating an actual script, even adding spot-on quizzes and knowledge checks.

You can get a glimpse of how this works on our AI Create webpage.

A must- must- must-do, of course, is to review and correct any errors or omissions. AI can save you countless hours of time, but it’s not 100% automatic. There will be mistakes that you, as the true subject matter expert, will need to correct or clarify.

But, let’s take a step back. It’s hard to think of AI utilization as overcomplicating things given its tremendous efficiency in course development. But sometimes even this is time better spent. Going back to my earlier comment on keeping things simple for workforce training, particularly when it comes to core food safety fundamentals. Food manufacturers have access to pre-built eLearning course libraries that cover these food safety training must-haves very well.

A winning formula is to use the library from a reliable training partner to cover the fundamental principles. And leverage AI for the deeper dives or unique aspects of your facility. By utilizing a pre-built library, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for a few dozen core principles that are universal and unwavering. For example, Cleaning and Sanitizing is a topic that should be covered in any training library. Your vendor’s course will cover the basic principles, include interactive exercises to cement understanding, and have quizzes to document comprehension. Then, you may have unique aspects particular to your facility that the sanitation department must follow. With the foundation provided, you can use AI to make an eLearning course on your unique processes.

SkillUp is a new example of a training vendor as you described. Why did Registrar Corp develop this new offering now, after nearly 25 years leading the food safety compliance space?

To fill a noticeable gap in the industry. The existing training vendors were not meeting the needs of many small food manufacturers. Not every company has thousands of employees. Many companies need a solution with lighter implementation, easier management, and — perhaps most importantly — a more affordable option.

Registrar Corp provides a wide range of food safety compliance services. And we have been providing professional eLearning for advanced food safety principles, like PCQI training, HACCP certification, FSVP training, and more. So, we recognized the gap in frontline worker training for small- to medium-sized facilities. Several of our leaders who developed SkillUp have decades of experience in the food safety training space. I believe they just recognized the gap and were well positioned to provide a solution to fill it.

If your readers are interested in learning more about it, they can visit the SkillUp web page, or feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.