Preventive Controls Qualified Individual | 2 Sessions
Course Overview
Food safety is no longer optional for today’s coffee businesses. This two-session online Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) course gives you the knowledge and tools to design, implement, and maintain a compliant food safety plan that works in a real roastery, warehouse, or importing operation.
Led live on Zoom by an experienced coffee-industry PCQI trainer, you’ll work through seven core modules and practical exercises over 12+ hours of instruction. By the end of the course, you’ll have the confidence to oversee your facility’s food safety program and a Certificate of Completion documenting your PCQI training.
What you’ll learn
Understand the role and responsibilities of a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual in a coffee operation.
Interpret key FSMA requirements and how they apply to roasting, importing, warehousing, and distribution.
Identify biological, chemical, and physical hazards in your coffee supply chain.
Develop and document risk-based preventive controls that are realistic for your facility.
Develop monitoring, verification, and record-keeping systems that withstand audits and inspections.
Use practical templates to build or refine your written food safety plan for your own products and processes.
Prepare your team for ongoing compliance, continuous improvement, and future growth.
Who should take this course?
This PCQI course is designed for:
Coffee roastery owners, partners, and general managers
Production, operations, and plant managers
Quality assurance/quality control managers and supervisors
Importers, exporters, and trading companies handling green coffee
Warehouse, storage, and transport managers for coffee products
Anyone responsible for writing, implementing, or maintaining a food safety plan
Course Format
Delivery: Live, instructor-led online training via Zoom (no travel required).
Structure: Two sessions totaling 12+ hours of instruction, discussion, and guided exercises.
Curriculum: Seven modules covering hazard analysis, preventive controls, verification, records, and corrective actions.
Materials: Student handbook,
Class size: Interactive group format with time for questions about your specific operation.
Outcome: Certificate of Completion documenting your PCQI training and readiness to oversee a compliant food safety program.
Why study at Firedancer
Coffee-first perspective: Firedancer is a world-class training center built specifically for coffee professionals—roasters, green buyers, importers, and business owners.
Regulatory expertise for coffee: We offer a full range of education around FSMA, PCQI, FSVP, OSHA, and EPA requirements, all tailored to the specialty coffee chain.
Real-world experience: Your instructor brings hands-on experience in roasting operations, risk management, and food safety implementation—not just theory.
Practical, actionable tools: You’ll leave with templates, checklists, and examples you can immediately apply to your own facility.
Supportive learning environment: Firedancer is known for approachable, high-quality training that builds confidence as well as competence.
Payment and Cancellation, if applicable:
Once registration and tuition has been received for a course, we consider this to be a firm commitment for attendance. Last-minute participant substitutions are difficult to arrange, although we understand emergency situations may arise that will affect attendance to programs offered by Firedancer.
We have established the following policy in case of course cancelation:
- If cancellation is made over 15 days before the program start date, 100% of the tuition, less a 10% cancellation fee, will be refunded, or 100% of the tuition is transferable to another program and/or date.
- If cancellation is made within less than 15 days prior to the program date, the entire tuition is non-refundable, however, you may transfer to a future date.
Firedancer reserves the right to cancel or reschedule events as necessary. In such a case, this will occur two weeks before the start of the event. Tuition may be refunded in full or transferred to a future seminar or course. In no event shall Firedancer Coffee Consultants be liable for any cancelation or change penalties assessed by an airline or hotel as a result of course date changes or cancellations.
Tuition & Certificate Fees:
Firedancer will no longer include the certificate fees associated with SCA classes. While this saddens us, we found it challenging to manage the class processing according to each individual's timeline. Please note the SCA certificate fees are $100 per class.
INCLUDED WITH TUITION: Student handbook, class activity materials, certificate of completion (Food Safety Coursework), and lunch (for classes longer than 6 hours).
NOT INCLUDED WITH TUITION: Airfare, transportation, lodging, SCA certificate fees, or other personal expenses.