The number of farmhouse and artisan cheese and dairy producers is increasing in most European countries. This trend is supported by a high demand from the consumers, who are confident on these minimal processed products, made with traditional methods, and who value their quality with regard to taste. For farmhouse and artisan cheese and dairy producers, the quality and safety of their products is an essential issue, increased by their proximity with their customers, through short marketing supply chain, which can result in a direct economic impact in case of defect on their products. Because of this specific sensibility towards food quality, producers often know and apply intuitively in their work the fundamental elements of food safety. But, they often have difficulty to formalize and explain them to their public (customers, authorities…). Yet, legal requirements set in the European Regulation “Hygiene Package”, demand them not only to implement, but also to formalize and prove how they apply food safety principles in their enterprises. The sector must solve another difficulty: although the Hygiene Package actually plans a « flexible » application of the regulation, according to the size of the establishments and the « traditional » character of the products made, the capacity of small scale production to actually meet the regulatory requirements is still strongly questioned by the authorities in some countries or regions. In this context, the association grouping main producers’ organizations and specialized training centres of the sector at European level – FACEnetwork - committed itself to lead its producers to a high level of understanding and of knowledge of food safety and good hygiene practices. In this purpose, it drafted a project in two steps: 1- The elaboration of a community Guide for good hygiene practices, specifically dedicated to farmhouse and artisan cheese and dairy producers. This Guide, which describes and formalises adapted recommendations for the sector as regards to food safety, has been drafted in 2015 - 2016 by experts from 15 countries. This first program was funded by European Commission, and the Guide elaborated was officially endorsement by European Commission and the Member States in December 2016. 2- Based on the essential reference constituted by this sectorial official Guide, a second step is now the preparation of a large scale training sessions' program on the topic of food safety management. This step is the purpose of the current TEACHEESY project. TEACHEESY project should give to FACE’s networks organisations and training centres specific means to prepare suitable training tools and methodologies and to start training future trainers, in the perspective of this big scale training program. Indeed, the final beneficiaries of this plan are the professional farmhouse and artisan cheese and dairy producers, estimated at over 13 000 businesses across Europe. As they are too numerous to be reached directly by the only partners of the project, the project will foremost target to train the technicians of FACEnetwork’s organisation’s staff all over Europe, who will be able, beyond the project, to organise and realise themselves trainings addressed to producers of their countries and regions. Practical work to be made within TEACHEESY project will take place over 24 months, according to the following tasks: - Task 1: Elaboration of training toolkits, through transnational meetings, exchanges of experience and of information. - Task 2: Assessment of the training toolkits and starting of a technicians' network through the realisation of trainings of technicians. - Task 3: Dissemination of the results of the project to the interested parties, and notably the producers, through meetings of information in each country of FACEnetwork’s organisations and through a dedicated website. This work will be made by 10 partner’s organisations under the management of FACEnetwork association. The working team includes both technicians and producers experienced in the field of hygiene requirements for cheese and dairy production. All of them did work on the realisation and/or implementation of national guides for good hygiene practices in their country and they were also partners in the realisation of the European Guide endorsed by European Commission in 2016. In a context where milk production (milk as primary material for the industry) is in crisis across Europe, and where the development of the artisan and farmhouse dairy sector is strategic, TEACHEESY project aims to contribute to the professionalization and to quality improvement of the sector’s businesses. Beyond the dairy sector, the experience acquired during this project could serve as a methodological foundation for other productions from the so-called "local agriculture" and short supply chain, today considered by a number of European decision-makers as advantages for the development of European's rural territories.
For farmhouse and artisan cheese and dairy producers, the quality and safety of their products is an essential issue. Yet, legal requirements set in the European Regulation “Hygiene Package”, require them not only to implement, but also to formalize and prove how they apply food safety principles in their enterprises. In this context, FACEnetwork (Farmhouse and Artisan Cheese and Dairy Producer’s European network) has committed itself to carry out an ambitious project in two stages: 1- The production of a community Guide for good hygiene practices (GGHP), specifically dedicated to farmhouse and artisan cheese and dairy producers. This first programme took place in 2015-2016 and it was funded by European Commission. The Guide, on its completion was officially endorsed by European Commission and the Member States in December 2016. 2- The second stage is now the preparation of a large scale training sessions programme aiming to accompany the producers in their use of this official sectorial Guide; the TEACHEESY project, funded by Erasmus+. Teacheesy aims to create and provide the necessary training tools and methologies required by qualified technicians and trainers which will, in turn, be used to instruct farmhouse and artisan cheesemakers across the whole of Europe on a common policy for good hygiene in cheesemaking. During the first year, training tools and methodologies were made. The team met and coordinated its work in the framework of 4 transnational meetings that took place in 4 different countries: Germany (October 2017), Spain (January 2018), Bulgaria (April 2018) and Finland (July 2018). Between each of these key events, the team continued exchanging and working through skype meetings. In autumn 2018, 5 training sessions addressed to technicians from the Teacheesy partners’ organisations were organised in 5 different countries: Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany and France. These sessions allowed the training toolkits and methods newly drafted to be used and assessed. Although these sessions took place in 5 countries only, the technicians from the 9 partner countries had the opportunity to participate as trainees. A total of 75 people participated as trainees in these sessions, among which around 70 were technicians/trainers. Early 2019, the training tools and methods were finalized by the Teacheesy team according to the balance of the “trial” training sessions of the Automn 2018. 2 transnational meetings took place in the Netherlands in January and May 2019 to coordinate this work. Between April and August 2019, each partner country organized an information event in its country, in order to present and explain the outcomes of Teacheesy. These events launched a larger scale and long term training programme in each country, on the basis of the work made through Teacheesy. A total of 277 people participated to these meetings, mostly producteurs and technicians, but also authorities. Thus, The Teacheesy programme achieved its aim: now, a huge pedagogic set of more than 50 training media in 13 languages is available to all at the specific website, that will stay operative beyond the programme at the following address: www.face-network.eu/teacheesy. Moreover, the sector of small scale European dairies benefits from now of a network of technicians across Europe, qualified on food safety management systems and who will stay in the link in the future and continue a sort of self-training process through their networking.