Although there are professions such as; Food Engineers, Agricultural Engineers, Veterinary Surgeons, Chemists, etc. working in Food Safety area in Turkey and in EU member states, none of them has a special training on food safety with a whole “from farm to fork” approach. Therefore the existing education systems related food safety needs an integration and harmonization of EU regulations with a whole “from farm to fork” approach.

F⁴ST (From Farm to Fork Food Safety Specialists Training) is a unique vocational e-learning training program which aims:

1. to fill the gaps for each profession with a common “from farm to fork” approach, to cover the whole food safety measures, EU regulations and the total quality management methodology integrating the needs of EU countries in accordance with identification of new qualification needs
2. to enhance the qualifications and skills of food safety specialist from each profession who can make the SME compatible with the EU regulations on food safety.
3. to be easily accessible to each profession in EU by using e-learning program

For this purpose 1 candidate and 7 European member countries participated in the project to share their knowledge and experiences on related food safety issues and e-learning technology.

Each partner will determine the training needs in food safety for the establishment of the training modules. After that, training modules and their chapters will be determined and developed by the responsible partners. When the content of modules is completed, the content will be transferred into e-learning system. Every partner will find trainees to benefit from the program. 1500 Food Safety Specialist will be trained free by F⁴ST. When the training sessions are finished, The Coordinator will organize 2 day’s in 4 different cities in Turkey. Trainees will give their feedbacks about F⁴ST program and related sector’s representatives will communicate their expectations and experiences to trainees during the workshops.

The curriculum of F⁴ST will consist of 9 training modules. Each module will last 10 hours: Introduction to Food Safety, Food Chemistry, Food Microbiology, Physical and Other Biological Agents, Food Preservation Techniques, Primary Production Agriculture, Primary Production Animal, Inspection and Audit, HACCP.

F⁴ST e-learning program will have an easy access to whole EU members and will be continuously updated according to the changing EU regulations. The language of the program will be English and Turkish; all partners will be free to translate the F⁴ST into their own language for the sustainability of the project.