INTERNATIONAL SERVICES
Thomas J. Hoffman, President, TJH Consulting, LLC participated in the team system reviews of Austria, Canada and Mexico’s inspection and enforcement programs while at USDA. He conducted audits of each countries enforcement program. In addition, he collaborated on the review of equivalency questionnaires for Slovenia, Costa Rico and Jamaica. He has also advised U.S. reviewers on enforcement issues prior to and after conducting annual audits.
He has 35 years of service with USDA’s, Food Safety and Inspection Service that enable him to provide many food safety related services to foreign countries and foreign plants that are or would like to, export meat and/or poultry products to the U.S.
Since retiring, Tom audited Mexico’s organizational structure and government oversight activities under a contract with USDA’s/FSIS. He provided recommendations for improvement. Based on Tom’s recommendations, Mexico has implemented the US system for SSOP/HACCP verification known as PBIS.
Tom taught a course on SSOP/HACCP verification based on the U.S. model to 50 Mexican government officials.
The new SSOP/HACCP verification system was pilot tested in Monterrey, Mexico. All six plants that participated in the pilot passed the recent U.S
He conducted audits of the food safety systems at four large beef slaughterhouses in Mexico to prepare them for audits by the U.S. Rewrote the company’s SSOP/HACCP plans and prerequisite programs including BSE.
Tom conducted an audit of the food safety systems at several meat processing plants in Mexico to prepare them for an audit by the U.S. on behalf of the US Meat Export Federation.
He taught a follow-up course on SSOP/HACCP verification based on the U.S. model to 35 Mexican government officials on behalf of The United Status-Mexico Foundation for Science.
Since retiring, Tom has worked with the country of Mexico on the organizational structure and government oversight component of their inspection program while under contract with USDA/FSIS. He designed and taught a course on SSOP/HACCP verification to 40 Mexican government and company officials.
The new SSOP/HACCP verification system was pilot tested in Monterrey, Mexico. All six plants that participated in the pilot passed the recent U.S.
Tom has also worked with two of the largest beef slaughter facilities in Mexico. Tom identified facility issues that needed improvement and he rewrote their SSOP/HACCP plans.
Tom recently taught a series of training classes on U.S. food safety policies, including SSOP/HACCP verification, to 35 Serbian/Montenegro government and company officials. The courses met International food safety requirements under the WTO/SPS Agreement. This training was conducted on behalf of USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service. The course involved hands on verification training in two meat slaughter and processing facilities.
Tom taught HACCP in Bogotá, Columbia the week of November 7, 2005, to forty government representatives from the five Andean countries while under contract with USDA’s FAS. He also conducted a review of a large cattle and hog slaughter and processing plant with the 40 representatives in attendance to apply the class room training to an actual plant setting.
Tom Hoffman, President, TJH Consulting, LLC was the Lead Instructor at the Animal Inspection Quarantine Workshop in Lima, Peru on September 5-9, 2005, under a contract with USDA’s/FSIS. He taught courses in Beef Slaughter Practices, E. coli and Salmonella Sampling and Zero Tolerance for Fecal. He also, taught Bio-security, Egg Products, and Import and Export Inspection Practices. There were representatives from the five Andean Countries in attendance.
Tom recently taught a course on SSOP/HACCP to 25 French Government and Company Quality Control Officials.
The firm provides consulting services to foreign countries and foreign establishments in the following areas: