Feb 11, 2004
WASHINGTON, DC — February 10, 2004 — Through a new alliance, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) will offer a SuperSafeMark™ certified Food Safety ManagerTM exam provided by the National Registry of Food Safety Professionals, according to a joint announcement today.

The National Registry’s exam is recognized internationally by the retail food industry, regulatory agencies and food safety experts in the academic community. The exam will be incorporated into FMI’s SuperSafeMark™ training program for retailers.

“This alliance delivers a one-stop food safety training and manager certification package,” said Tim Hammonds, FMI president and CEO. “It combines the industry’s most rigorous training and testing to certify that food retail and wholesale managers know the most current food safety best practices.”

“We designed SuperSafeMark™ as both a training and certification program,” said Hammonds. “More states and locales today require food safety certification, and companies seek programs recognized on national and international levels. Our alliance with the National Registry provides our training with a rock-solid certification component to help ensure validity, reliability and legal defensibility of certification for food managers.”

“The National Registry is pleased to join with FMI in offering this food safety examination designed for the unique needs of the supermarket industry.” said Larry Lynch, National Registry president. “Our background in effective test development is a perfect match with FMI’s strong retail training program and membership base”

SuperSafeMark™ training and the certification exam provided by the National Registry will be featured in FMI education programs throughout the year, beginning with the Food Safety Summit March 15-16 in Washington, DC.

SuperSafeMark™ provides comprehensive food safety training for all levels of employees — from management to line workers. The program uses resources that provide flexibility in training, such as quick reference tools, supervisor guides, a video series, posters, trainer kits with PowerPoint slide presentation provided on CD-ROM and online learning opportunities.

Published by Prentice Hall, this training program covers critical food safety skills, such as personal health and hygiene, time-and-temperature controls, measures to prevent cross contamination, proper sanitizing procedures and supermarket best practices. The materials are extensively illustrated with photos and graphics that show people how to apply the teachings in a supermarket setting.

For more information, visit the FMI Web site at www.supersafemark.com or the National Registry site at www.nrfsp.com.