The spring semester beganunusually early for the senior under-graduate agribusiness (UAB) stu-dents of ATC; however, this oneextra month of study is more thanjustified for them. Following nearlytwo years of intensive preparationwork, ATC started teaching FoodSafety Systems Management(FSSM) course to 29 students andone ICARE staff member. Thecourse program was establishedthrough the USAID-fundedInnovATE (Innovation for AgriculturalTraining and Education), coordinat-ed by the Director ofInnovATE/Armenia Angela Neilanand taught by prominent expertsfrom U.S. partner universities: Dr.Catherine Cutter, Professor of FoodScience and Assistant Director ofFood Safety & Quality Programs,Penn State, Dr. Joseph Marcy, Headof the Department of Food Scienceand Technology at Virginia Tech andDr. Siroj Pokharel, Post-DoctoralScholar and Advisor, Penn State.The goal of the one-month intensive

certificate course is to improve thesafety of Armenia’s food supplychain from crop production and pro-cessing to packaging, handling,marketing, and consumption. Ourstudents are privileged to catch upwith the latest scientific reason whilelearning several different modules

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Armenian students successfully completed pioneerFSSM program and received Penn State certificates

such as Introduction to FoodScience, Sanitation, FoodMicrobiology, Food Defense,HACCP. It included many hands-ontrials as well as weekly field trips tofood processing companiesthroughout the country.

“This is the “tastiest” course wehave ever had at ATC,” said RazmikSimonyan on behalf of the seniorundergraduate agribusiness (UAB)class. Each day of the Food SafetySystems Management program(from 9 am till 5 pm) is full of inten-sive hands-on learning both in theclassroom and in the cafeteria, com-puter lab, conference room and

kitchen, all mobilized for the course.During the first week of the program(Introduction to FSSM and FoodScience), Penn State and VirginiaTech professors taught the stu-dents, in particular, the importanceof water activity in raw (meat) andprocessed product (jerky); evaluateemulsification and quality of flour(pizza), do sensory evaluation ofdairy products and introduce differ-ent flavors, learn how to can fruits,make salsa and jam, taking into con-sideration acidification andcaramelization, etc. The week wasconcluded with a field trip toArmenia Wine Company in Sasunik

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village, Aragatsotn marz. During thetour in the company, the UAB seniorstudents asked questions that aredirectly related to food safety man-agement; they now know what toask and what to expect in response.

The second week was dedicat-ed to Sanitation and FoodMicrobiology. The students did notprepare and taste any food but theylearned from Dr. Cutter and Dr.Pokharel how to properly clean sur-faces in processing enterprises andelsewhere, as well as got closelyacquainted with "their own"pathogens and learned how to domicrobial count with a CFU unit.Sanitation and Food Microbiologymodule of FSSM program revealeda good amount of world-classknowledge for UAB senior class onidentification of food spoilage andmicroorganisms, aseptic tech-niques, dilutions, sample prepara-tion, differences between immuno-logically- and DNA-based methodsused for pathogen detection infoods, differentiation between food-borne pathogens and much more.Dr. Cutter, Dr. Marcy and Dr.Pokharel are doing a great jobtogether with their four Armeniancolleagues: Zaruhi Davtyan andSergey Chakhmakhchyan from theCenter for Agribusiness and RuralDevelopment (CARD) and DavitPipoyan and Melinė Beglaryan fromthe National Academy of Sciences.They are assisting the American fac-ulty in course delivery and will takethe lead for such future courses atthe ATC. They are in turn recognizedfood safety specialists in Armeniaand will ensure sustainability of thispioneer certificate program inArmenia.

The third week of the FoodSafety Systems Management pro-gram ended with a field trip toNatFood and Noyan companies.The goal was to learn how HACCPsystem works in real life. AtNatFood, known by its Biella brandof meat products, a pleasant gift in

the form of a new product of thecompany was awaiting to all stu-dents and their instructors. At NoyanJuice Company, the surprise was tothe management of the company inthe form of a certificate of apprecia-tion from Angela Neilan to the multi-year partner of ICARE/ATC and thenew partner of InnovATE/Armenia.Judging from the results of hazardanalyses and the HACCP plansdeveloped by the students for differ-ent food industries, they were quitesuccessful in this assignment too.

With the last module, FoodDefense, the FSSM program wascompleted on February 3.

Many local and U.S. expertsconsider the successful completionof this special training course asassurance of more secure future forArmenia’s food supply chain. Itbecame possible thanks to theinnovative cooperation agreementsbetween the Armenian NationalAgrarian University, ICARE and theConsortium of U.S. universities, with

USAID support.On February 3, thirty graduates

of the program received certificatesfrom Penn State University for suc-cessful completion of the first FoodSafety Systems Managementcourse in Armenia.

During the award ceremony,USAID Armenia Mission DirectorDeborah Grieser, ANAU RectorArshaluys Tarverdyan, ICAREDirector Vardan Urutyan, andInnovATE Armenia Project DirectorAngela Neilan presented certificates

to the first graduates of the course.Armenia’s Minister of

Agriculture, Ignati Arakelyan, wasalso in attendance at the event.Congratulating the graduates of thefirst Food Safety SystemsManagement program, heexpressed hope that in the nearterm future the Center’s entire grad-uating class would have theirweighty contribution in the foodsafety sector, which is very criticalfor Armenia. He thanked the US

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Government and USAID for continu-ous support in development of agri-cultural education in Armenia andsaid that the Ministry’s Food SafetyDepartment will be happy to employsome of the students upon theirgraduation of ATC.

In her welcome remarks, Ms.Grieser noted that ICARE, the parentorganization of the AgribusinessTeaching Center, was the result of aunique cooperation between theUnited States and Armenia. “We arehappy to have watched ICAREevolve and grow over the past 16years into an essential institutionthat promotes the best internationalstandards for agribusiness. Thisnew certificate program addressesthe needs of the ArmenianGovernment and food processingbusinesses in Armenia. It also pro-vides an unprecedented opportunityfor the Armenian higher educationsystem to offer informed solutions tocritical issues concerning food safe-ty. USAID is proud to support theseefforts,” she said, adding that theprogram would expand job place-ment opportunities in the agribusi-ness sector.

Arshaluys Tarverdyan, theRector of the Armenian NationalAgrarian University (ANAU), noted inhis turn that, responding to theexisting needs of the labor market,ANAU is currently involved inreforming its educational programs.At the same time, raising ANAU’sinternational status has been inprogress for over twenty years now.The Food Safety SystemsManagement program is a soundcomplement to these successfulprocesses. Moreover, ANAU strong-ly believes that on the educationlevel this innovative and unique pro-gram is the best answer to the many

open questions and challenges infood safety that are encountered bythe agricultural sector and the con-sumer community in general. “Wecould expect positive outcomesonly in cooperation with our interna-tional partners. I am pleased tomention that we have started coop-eration with Penn State and VirginiaTech through the support fromUSAID. In a short period, a fewintensive modules were developedand suggested to undergraduatesenior students of the ANAUAgribusiness Teaching Center dur-ing January. Today, witnessing theknowledge and aspirations of ourstudents, we should use thisscheme to organize the educationprocess in other departments of theuniversity,” said Rector Tarverdyan.

ICARE Director Vardan Urutyanevaluated the FSSM program asanother key achievement of ICAREand its partners - USAID, InnovATE/

Armenia, ANAU, Penn State andVirginia Tech. He thanked all part-ners for the continuous support andjoint efforts in helping ATC be soadvantageously different and pio-neers for change in the Armenianeducation system. “With the PennState Food Safety certificates, theamazing 92 percent job placement ofour students will grow to the virtuallyincredible 100 percent level,” Dr.Urutyan said.

The FSSM course curriculumwas developed by Dr. Cutter and Dr.Marcy for Armenia based on theirteaching experience and Armenia’sspecific needs for food safety edu-cation. Accordingly, we at ICAREbeleive that Food Safety SystemsManagement certificate will definite-ly accelerate the process of match-ing the education and training levelto the international food safety stan-dards and the real needs of thegrowing food industry in Armenia.