FOOD SAFETY
provides a structure for documenting staff
competency and completed training that
can be used to meet compliance to the
ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard. As many
states face retirements at senior-level
positions, LCF can also serve as a way to
retain and transfer knowledge.
Curriculum Framework
APHL and its partners have made much
progress on LCF. The Entry Level content
areas are complete, with competency
statements and behavioral anchors (what
the laboratorian should be able to explain
or demonstrate to meet the competency
statement) developed and all competency
statements validated (Figure 3). The
Entry Level Program-specific content
areas are complete and APHL is working
with the International Food Protection
Training Institute (IFPTI) to validate the
Entry Level Program-specific content
areas’ competency statements. The
Mid-Level General content areas have all
competencies developed, and behavioral
anchors were developed in spring 2020.
Course Development
APHL is developing online courses for the
Entry Level content areas on LCF. While
not all competencies can be assessed
by an online modality, supplemental
training may be created in the future to
ensure training is available to address all
competencies. Five to ten courses will be
developed each year, with the Entry Level
general content area courses completed
before the Entry Level Program-specific
courses (Figure 2). We anticipate that
the first four courses will be available in
summer 2020.
The LCF Workgroup has representation from a
multitude of stakeholders. This multi-agency
approach ensures buy-in from partners and
applicability across organizations. It includes
representatives from:
• APHL
n Course completed n Course under development n Course for future development
E1
Accreditation/Certification
E2
Basic Communication Skills
E3
Basic Laboratory Math
E4
Basic Laboratory Statistics
E5
Basic Laboratory Techniques
E6
Chain of Custody
• US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO)
E7
Laboratory Ethics
E8
Incident Command System
(ICS)
E9
Integrated Food Safety
System (IFSS)
E10
Laboratory Information
Management System (LIMS)
E11
Laboratory Sampling
E12
Method Resources
Figure 2: Entry Level Course Development Progress as of June 2020
Brainstorming
Grouping
Figure 3: LCF Competency Development Process
Developing
Competency
Statements
• Association of American Feed Control
Officials (AAFCO)
• International Food Protection Training
Institute (IFPTI)
• Department of Defense (DoD)
E13
Public Health (One Health)
Approach
E14
Quality Management Systems
Developing
Behavioral
Anchors
E15
Regulatory Programs
E16
Regulatory Sampling
E17
Laboratory Safety
E18
Waste Management
Chart
Competency
Statements
• International partners, such as the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health
Canada.
APHL would like to thank the members
of the LCF Workgroup who have devoted
many years to the development of
this framework and the capture of
important knowledge for our laboratory
community. n
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org
Spring 2020 LAB MATTERS 13