Food Protection Professionals National Curriculum Standard

The Food Protection Professionals National Curriculum Standard (NCS) is a key element of the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS), a seamless partnership and collaboration among human and animal food regulatory jurisdictions: Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial.

The NCS represents a standard for human and animal food professionals, across their entire careers. The NCS depicts the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by these professionals in order to successfully perform their jobs, thereby assuring a competent workforce doing comparable work across all jurisdictions.

Click on a completed topic in the interactive framework below to view the associated competencies and learning resources:

The NCS serves multiple purposes, including:

1. Training Design and Development: the NCS provides the objectives for training and course design. For example, the IFSS Basic Level Courses were developed based on the NCS.

2. Evaluation: the NCS provides a standard against which existing courses and training materials can be evaluated.

3. Assessment: the NCS provides a standard for self-assessment and supervisory assessment for coaching and mentoring.

4. Career Path Development: the NCS provides a “map” for human and animal food regulatory professionals’ career development.

5. Staffing Practices: the NCS provides a standard for hiring, onboarding, developing job descriptions, and creating training plans.

6. Open-Source Catalog: existing training materials and related resources can be arranged and categorized according to the NCS.

7. The Food Protection Professionals NCS also forms the foundation for the AFDO Credential Series.