For: Machine operators, packers, warehouse and dispatch staff in plants that make or print food packaging.

Modules

1. Why a pack is treated like food
2. Personal hygiene, protective clothing and illness reporting
3. Foreign bodies: glass, brittle plastic, blades, wood and metal
4. Line clearance, changeovers and mixed print
5. Cleaning, housekeeping and signs of pests
6. Inks, lubricants and chemicals at the machine
7. Allergens, product security and raising a concern confidentially

After this course you can

• Run a line clearance that a BRCGS or FSSC auditor would accept
• Explain to a new starter why a stray carton blank is a food safety incident
• Report broken glass or brittle plastic correctly the first time

Standards and law: ISO 22002-4:2025, ISO 22002-100:2025, BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7

Course tool: Line clearance check sheet builder

For: Fitters, electricians, toolroom and engineering staff, and contractors working on packaging lines.

Modules

1. How maintenance work contaminates a pack
2. Tool control, blades, dies and swarf
3. Temporary repairs and why they become permanent
4. Food-grade lubricants and compressed air
5. Hygiene clearance and handover after maintenance
6. Hygienic design of converting and filling machines

After this course you can

• Hand a machine back to production with a signed hygiene clearance
• Control every tool and blade taken onto the floor
• Select an H1 registered lubricant where food contact is possible and record the registration

Standards and law: ISO 22002-4:2025, BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7, FSSC 22000 Version 7

Course tool: Maintenance hygiene clearance form generator

For: Supervisors, QC staff and new HACCP or food safety team members at packaging sites.

Modules

1. Prerequisites first: what HACCP sits on
2. Biological, chemical (including allergens and migrants) and physical hazards in packaging
3. Intended use: who fills the pack and with what
4. The seven principles applied to a printing and converting line
5. Critical limits, monitoring, corrections and corrective actions at the machine
6. Records an auditor will ask for

After this course you can

• Describe a packaging product and its intended use in a HACCP study
• List the realistic hazards on a converting line, migration included
• Follow and record a monitoring step correctly

Standards and law: Codex CXC 1-1969, General Principles of Food Hygiene (revised 2020 and 2022), Chapter Two: HACCP, ISO 22000:2018, BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7

Course tool: Packaging hazard prompt cards

For: HACCP team leaders, technical and quality managers at packaging sites, and food manufacturers approving packaging.

Modules

1. Building the HACCP team and scope for a packaging site
2. Product description, intended use, flow diagrams and on-site confirmation
3. Chemical migration and NIAS as hazards
4. Microbiological risk for hygiene-sensitive packaging: aseptic, ready-to-eat and infant food uses (Listeria monocytogenes, Enterobacteriaceae, moulds)
5. Physical hazards and foreign-body risk assessment
6. Allergen risk assessment and management plan
7. Categorising control measures in each scheme's own language: CCPs and OPRPs (ISO 22000, FSSC 22000) and the control measure terms of BRCGS, IFS and SQF
8. Validating control measures
9. Verification, review and change management
10. Workshop: full study on the Mzansi Pack case (three sittings)

After this course you can

• Lead a packaging hazard and risk analysis that stands up at certification
• Categorise and defend each control measure in the language of the site's own scheme
• Assess migration and NIAS risk for a pack from intended use, the declaration of compliance and test evidence
• Validate a control measure with documented evidence

Standards and law: Codex CXC 1-1969, General Principles of Food Hygiene (revised 2020 and 2022), Chapter Two: HACCP, ISO 22000:2018, BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7, FSSC 22000 Version 7, IFS PACsecure Version 3

Course tool: Packaging hazard analysis builder (exports Excel)

For: Food safety coordinators, production and engineering managers at packaging sites.

Modules

1. What changed from ISO/TS 22002-4:2013 to the 2025 pair
2. Site, layout and building standards
3. Utilities, air, water and waste
4. Equipment, maintenance and calibration
5. Purchased materials and supplier management
6. Contamination, glass and brittle plastic control
7. Risk-based hygiene programme, hygiene zoning and environmental monitoring
8. Allergen controls
9. Cleaning, pest control and personnel hygiene
10. Warehousing and transport
11. Rework, traceability and withdrawal
12. Verifying that PRPs work

After this course you can

• Gap assess a packaging site against ISO 22002-4:2025
• Write PRP procedures that match what happens on the floor
• Use monitoring and verification records to show that PRPs work

Standards and law: ISO 22002-4:2025, ISO 22002-100:2025, FSSC 22000 Version 7

Course tool: ISO 22002-4:2025 gap assessment

For: Site directors, general managers and department heads at BRCGS certified packaging sites.

Modules

1. Senior management commitment and what the auditor asks you
2. Product safety and quality culture on a packaging site
3. Confidential reporting and the fundamental requirements
4. Resources, objectives and management review
5. Audit grades, and blended or unannounced audit options
6. Reading an audit report and owning the corrective actions

After this course you can

• Answer the senior management questions at a BRCGS audit
• Set product safety objectives that the floor can see
• Run a management review that ends in agreed actions, owners and dates

Standards and law: BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7

Course tool: Management review pack builder

For: Packaging sites supplying European retailers and brand owners who ask for IFS.

Modules

1. IFS PACsecure and GFSI: which versions are recognised and what that means for your customers
2. Governance and commitment
3. Product safety and quality management system
4. Resource management and operational processes
5. Measurement, analysis and improvement
6. Product fraud and product defence requirements
7. The KO requirements, Major nonconformities and the unannounced audit
8. The audit, scoring and certification
9. Workshop: build the evidence pack for Mzansi Pack

After this course you can

• Gap assess a site against IFS PACsecure Version 3
• Prepare the site for IFS scoring and the KO requirements
• Build the evidence pack an IFS auditor expects

Standards and law: IFS PACsecure Version 3

Course tool: IFS PACsecure gap assessment

For: Packaging sites supplying North American customers and SQF certified food plants.

Modules

1. The SQF system and the packaging code
2. The SQF Practitioner, HACCP training and food safety culture
3. System elements: management, documents and specifications
4. Food safety plans for packaging
5. Good manufacturing practices for packaging
6. What Edition 10 changes and when audits start
7. Preparing for the SQF audit

After this course you can

• Explain the packaging code to management
• Build a food safety plan in the SQF format
• Plan the move to Edition 10 audits

Standards and law: SQF Food Safety Code: Manufacture of Food Sector Packaging, Editions 9 and 10

Course tool: SQF packaging readiness checklist

For: Packaging converters supplying pharmaceutical and medical manufacturers.

Modules

1. ISO 9001 plus GMP: how ISO 15378 is built, and what ISO 9001:2026 means for ISO 15378 certificates
2. Risk management for primary packaging
3. Contamination, mix-up and cleanroom controls
4. Validation and qualification of processes and equipment
5. Documentation, batch records and traceability
6. Change control and deviations
7. The certification audit

After this course you can

• Explain what ISO 15378 adds to ISO 9001 for a converter
• Set up batch records and change control a pharmaceutical customer will accept
• Prepare a site for an ISO 15378 certification audit

Standards and law: ISO 15378:2017 and Amendment 1:2024 (built on ISO 9001:2015), read alongside ISO 9001:2026

Course tool: ISO 15378 gap assessment

For: Technical and regulatory staff at packaging converters, food manufacturers and exporters.

Modules

1. The South African position: no general food contact regulation, but the Foodstuffs Act, R638 of 2018 and the 2011 prohibition of polycarbonate infant feeding bottles containing BPA all apply
2. EU framework: Regulation (EC) 1935/2004 and GMP Regulation (EC) 2023/2006
3. Plastics: Regulation (EU) 10/2011 as amended
4. Recycled plastics: Regulation (EU) 2022/1616
5. Bisphenols: Regulation (EU) 2024/3190 as corrected
6. United States: 21 CFR Parts 174 to 179 and the Food Contact Substance Notification Program
7. Building a compliance file per pack

After this course you can

• Name the rules that apply to a pack in each market
• Read a supplier's compliance file and see what is missing
• Explain correctly to a customer what South African law does and does not require

Standards and law: Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act 54 of 1972, R638 of 2018, Regulation (EC) 1935/2004, Regulation (EC) 2023/2006, Regulation (EU) 10/2011, Regulation (EU) 2022/1616, Regulation (EU) 2024/3190, 21 CFR Parts 174 to 179, 21 CFR 170.100 to 170.106

Course tool: Food contact compliance file checker

For: Packaging technologists, QA managers and food manufacturers approving packaging.

Modules

1. Overall and specific migration explained (plastics, with notes on paper, board and coatings)
2. Simulants, test conditions and worst-case selection
3. Reading a laboratory migration report
4. Declarations of compliance: what a valid one contains
5. Supporting documents and dual-use additives
6. NIAS: screening, identification and risk assessment
7. Workshop: approve or reject three realistic packaging submissions

After this course you can

• Choose a defensible migration test plan for a pack
• Approve or reject a declaration of compliance with reasons
• Assess NIAS using screening, identification and a TTC or Cramer class exposure approach, and record the conclusion

Standards and law: Regulation (EU) 10/2011, Regulation (EU) 2025/351, Regulation (EC) 1935/2004, EN 1186 series, EN 13130 series, Union Guidance on Regulation (EU) 10/2011 (guidance, not law)

Course tool: Migration test plan builder and declaration of compliance review checklist

For: Printers, converters, ink and adhesive users, and food QA teams approving printed packaging.

Modules

1. How ink and adhesive components reach food: set-off, migration and gas phase
2. Low migration as a system property: ink choice, substrate, curing and printer GMP
3. UV and EB curing: photoinitiators, cure verification and residual solvents
4. Functional barriers and when they work
5. Mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOSH and MOAH) and recycled fibre
6. Controls on press: drying, curing, stacking and storage
7. Supplier documents for inks and adhesives

After this course you can

• Control and verify set-off risk on a reel or stack through cure, drying, tension and stacking checks and targeted testing
• Ask ink and adhesive suppliers for the right documents
• Assess mineral oil risk for a recycled board pack

Standards and law: Regulation (EC) 1935/2004, Regulation (EC) 2023/2006, Swiss Ordinance SR 817.023.21, Annex 10, German Printing Ink Ordinance, EuPIA printing ink guidelines (industry guidance, not law), Commission Recommendation (EU) 2017/84 on mineral oil hydrocarbons (recommendation, not law)

Course tool: Printed pack risk screen

For: Brand owners, packaging buyers, sustainability and technical managers, and exporters to the EU.

Modules

1. Extended Producer Responsibility in South Africa: who must register and report
2. The scheme for paper, packaging and some single-use products
3. Plastic carrier bag rules and recycled content dates
4. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation for exporters
5. PFAS limits in food contact packaging
6. Recycled content without a food safety failure: authorised recycling processes, challenge testing and mineral oil in recycled fibre
7. Lightweighting, shelf life and food loss trade-offs

After this course you can

• Work out a business's EPR obligations
• Tell an EU customer what the PPWR means for the pack you supply
• Check a food contact pack against the PPWR PFAS limits and know when total fluorine results need follow-up
• Assess a recycled content change for food safety before it goes live

Standards and law: Regulations regarding Extended Producer Responsibility, GN 1184 of 2020, as amended, EPR Scheme for Paper, Packaging and Some Single-Use Products, GN 1187 of 2020, as amended, Plastic Carrier Bags and Plastic Flat Bags Regulations, as amended by GN 317 of 2021, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR), Regulation (EU) 2022/1616

Course tool: EPR and PPWR obligations finder

For: Food QA, QC, NPD and buying staff who approve, specify or buy packaging.

Modules

1. What packaging must do: protect, preserve, inform, sell
2. Paper and board, including corrugated
3. Plastics and flexible laminates
4. Metal cans, closures and foil
5. Glass containers and closures
6. Barrier properties, product and pack interaction (scalping, corrosion, can lacquers) and shelf life
7. Packaging specifications that a supplier can be held to

After this course you can

• Shortlist materials on oxygen, water vapour and light barrier data, then confirm shelf life by storage trials on the product in its pack
• Write a packaging specification with measurable limits
• Talk to a converter in their own terms

Standards and law: ISO 22002-4:2025, BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7, BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9

Course tool: Packaging specification builder

For: QC inspectors and supervisors at converters and at food plants receiving packaging.

Modules

1. Receiving packaging: certificates of conformance and analysis
2. Defect classification: critical, major, minor
3. Sampling plans and AQL with ISO 2859-1:2026, ISO 2859-2 for isolated lots, and why critical defects need zero acceptance
4. Dimensional, print and functional checks
5. Seal strength, closure torque and leak checks
6. Rejecting, holding and releasing a lot

After this course you can

• Set up a sampling plan for an incoming lot
• Classify packaging defects consistently across shifts
• Write a rejection backed by the specification and the sampling record

Standards and law: ISO 2859-1:2026, ISO 2859-2, ASTM F88 (seal strength), ASTM F2096 and F2338 (leak testing), BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7

Course tool: AQL sampling plan calculator and defect library

For: Prepress, print, QA and customer service staff at converters, and artwork coordinators at brand owners.

Modules

1. Artwork approval and version control
2. Plates, cylinders and print tooling control
3. Preventing mixed print and wrong pack incidents
4. Barcode quality and verification
5. Allergen and legal text: who is responsible for what
6. Print defects and first-off approval

After this course you can

• Run an artwork change with no obsolete version left in the building
• Verify a barcode and a first-off sheet
• Explain where the converter's responsibility for label text stops

Standards and law: BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7, R.146 of 2010 (labelling), GS1 General Specifications, ISO/IEC 15416:2025

Course tool: Artwork change control log

For: Food production, QA and engineering staff in canning, bottling, MAP and pouch operations.

Modules

1. Why integrity failures make people ill: Clostridium botulinum in low acid canned foods, post-process leakers and cooling water chlorination
2. Heat seals: settings, testing and failure modes
3. Closures and caps: torque, security and tamper evidence
4. Can double seams: teardown, measurements and what they mean
5. MAP and vacuum packs: gas mix, gas to product ratio, residual oxygen and the 10 day rule for non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum
6. Leak testing methods and choosing one
7. Investigating an integrity failure

After this course you can

• Set and verify heat seal parameters
• Carry out a double seam teardown, judge cover hook, body hook, overlap, tightness and thickness against the can maker's specification, and hold all product back to the last acceptable check when a seam fails
• Verify gas mix and residual oxygen with a headspace analyser against set limits
• Choose and validate a leak test for the pack

Standards and law: Codex CXC 1-1969, General Principles of Food Hygiene (revised 2020 and 2022), Chapter Two: HACCP, Codex CXC 23-1979, Code of Hygienic Practice for Low and Acidified Low Acid Canned Foods, Codex CXC 40-1993 (aseptically processed low acid foods), 21 CFR 113.60, BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9

Course tool: Seal and closure check sheet builder

For: Internal auditors at packaging sites and food manufacturers who audit their packaging suppliers.

Modules

1. Audit principles to ISO 19011:2026, including remote and blended audits
2. Planning an audit programme for a packaging site
3. Auditing PRPs and hygiene on a converting floor
4. Auditing the hazard analysis and migration evidence
5. Auditing culture, allergen management and the traceability test
6. Auditing a packaging supplier remotely and on site
7. Writing findings and closing corrective actions
8. Workshop: audit Mzansi Pack (three sittings)

After this course you can

• Plan and run an internal audit of a packaging site
• Audit a packaging supplier and grade the risk
• Write findings that drive root cause analysis and lasting corrective action

Standards and law: ISO 19011:2026, BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7, FSSC 22000 Version 7, IFS PACsecure Version 3

Course tool: Packaging audit checklist builder

For: Security, technical and site managers at packaging sites.

Modules

1. Why packaging is a target: tampering, counterfeit and diversion
2. Site security and access control
3. Threat assessment for a packaging site
4. Fraud vulnerability in raw materials and printed packaging
5. Controlling printed packaging, waste and returns
6. Testing the plan

After this course you can

• Complete a threat assessment for a packaging site
• Complete a fraud vulnerability assessment for key materials
• Control printed waste so it cannot be misused

Standards and law: BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7, FSSC 22000 Version 7, IFS PACsecure Version 3

Course tool: Packaging threat and vulnerability assessment