A Better Process Control School (BPCS) was held by the Department of Chemistry from January 8-12, 2024. The BPCS certification course is a mandatory regulatory requirement of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for processors of low-acid canned food and acidified food. Only US FDA-approved institutions are permitted to deliver the programme world-wide. Since 1997, The University of the West Indies (Department of Chemistry) has been a US FDA-approved institution. Forty-three (43) participants, from eighteen (18) companies located in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago, attended the course, delivered in dual mode: face-to-face and online. Online participants completed the examination process through the University of the West Indies Virtual Learning Environment (OurVLE). All candidates successfully completed the course and were awarded the UWI’s BPCS Certificate of Satisfactory Completion in Full or Certificate for Retort Processing, and Acidified Foods or Aseptic Processing.

Photo caption: Participants at the Better Process Control School hosted by The Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology at The University of the West Indies, Mona from January 8-12, 2024.

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