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A 50-week advanced diploma for people already working in food. No degree required. Scarborough and Mississauga.
HYBRID DELIVERY: THEORY MOSTLY FROM HOME. LABORATORY WORK AND FIELD PLACEMENT COMPLETED IN PERSON.
TWO CAMPUSES: SCARBOROUGH AND MISSISSAUGA.
50 Weeks
1,000 hours across ten courses, hybrid delivery
13
Named physicochemical
determinations performed in the lab
80 Hours
Guaranteed field placement,
evaluated by supervisor and instructor
$48.08/hr
Supervisors, food and beverage processing (NOC 92012).
(Source: Job Bank / Statistics Canada, 2023-24.)
The Route Past The Ceiling Has Always Asked for A Degree
You can tell from the colour, the smell, and the way a batch of food is running that something is wrong long before a result confirms it. Then you hand it over for someone else to decide.
The route past that has always asked for a degree you don’t have.
Since October 2025, a food manufacturer’s licence itself requires a documented preventive control plan and a demonstrated food safety culture. These requirements were previously voluntary. That is a permanent change and someone in your building has to own it.
Who This Is For
This program is built for people already working in food manufacturing. It’s for you if you are:
This program assumes you already work in food, or have worked in it before. If you’re coming to food safety from outside the industry, Oxford College’s entry-level Food Safety and Quality Assurance diploma is the right starting point.
What You Learn At Oxford College
Most food safety training teaches you to run a test. This program teaches you what to do with the result.
At Oxford College, you’ll spend:
- 160 hours on risk assessment and control plans
- 120 hours on quality management systems.
- 60 hours on writing the report that defends a decision, not just describes one.
- Thirteen laboratory determinations, run by hand, so the judgment you make on a batch of food is based on experience.
If you trained in food somewhere else, this isn’t starting over. It’s the part that was missing here.
The Lab, the Curriculum, and the Instructor Behind This
The largest course in the program. Hazard identification, critical control point determination, validation, monitoring, verification, and documentation. Students build and evaluate complete HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) programs against case studies.
Internal audits, traceability systems, validation studies, and inspection readiness. Owning and auditing a quality system, rather than following one.
Deviation reports, root cause analysis, corrective action plans, and standard operating procedures, written the way a decision has to be defended, upward and to an auditor.
Students perform thirteen named determinations (the routine physicochemical measurements a food plant runs against a product’s specification to decide whether it passes):
Several of these are release-decision tests. Peroxide value and free fatty acids in frying oil, the fresh-versus-used oil comparison, and physicochemical shelf-life evaluation are what a plant relies on to determine whether a product or process remains within specification. Net and drained weight is a legal labeling compliance test.
Dr. Hanna Sharafi
Program developer
The program was built by Hanna Sharafi, who holds a PhD in Microbiology; more than a decade of hands-on experience across food testing laboratories, quality assurance, food manufacturing, and product innovation; an ISO/IEC 17025:2017 Lead Auditor; also holds SQF Advanced Practitioner and PCQI; certified in Six Sigma and project management; currently the Senior Manager of New Product Development at a Canadian food manufacturer.
Dr. Sharafi built this curriculum based on what the industry needs, not on a standard syllabus, after years of teaching the subject at other colleges. That’s why the program is structured the way it is: real lab time, a guaranteed placement, and a curriculum shaped by someone who’s worked the job.
Every student completes a guaranteed 80-hour field placement at a food production facility, laboratory, or regulatory organization, and is evaluated by both a host supervisor and a college field instructor.
If your employer agrees to provide the experience the program requires, your placement can be completed at your current workplace, and those hours count toward the 80. It doesn’t have to be additional hours on top of your job.
This depends on your employer agreeing to arrange it; it isn’t automatic for every student, and it isn’t a waiver: the work is still formally evaluated against the program’s requirements.
The placement is a guaranteed component of the program. Employment afterward is not guaranteed.
How We Compare
There’s more than one way into food safety and quality work. Here’s how our program compares by category.
| OXFORD COLLEGE ADVANCED FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE |
DEGREE-GATED ADVANCED PROGRAMS |
SHORT CERTIFICATES |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry requirement |
OSSD, or mature student assessment. No degree |
Bachelor’s degree, three-year diploma, or prior post-secondary science |
Open |
| Length | 50 weeks | 1 to 3 years | About 15 hours |
| Hands-on lab work |
13 named determinations | Varies | None |
| Work experience |
Guaranteed 80-hour field placement |
Optional field placements or none |
None |
| Schedule | Morning, afternoon, or evening |
Typically daytime, full-time |
Self-paced online |
| What it gives you |
A diploma, plus the judgment to own a plan and defend a decision |
A diploma or degree |
A certificate in one specific competency |
Someone who’s spent years in a plant facility and never went to university has a path here, and almost nowhere else.
A certificate proves you know one thing well. The occupation asks for a certificate, several years of experience, and an extensive quality assurance background. If you already work in food manufacturing, you likely hold two of the three. That is what makes this a fast-track rather than a leap
How It Works
This is a 50-week, 1,000-hour hybrid diploma program with theory, laboratory work, and a field placement.
REQUIREMENTS:
Admission is by Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent, or Mature Student Status (19 years of age or older) with successful completion of the Wonderlic SLE-Q entrance assessment at a minimum score of 17.
NO DEGREE IS REQUIRED.
SCHEDULE:
The program is offered with three daily start times:
Availability of a specific start time is confirmed by admissions at enrollment.
MORNING, AFTERNOON, OR EVENING.
Availability of a specific start time is confirmed by admissions at enrollment.
CAMPUSES:
Laboratory work and field placement are completed in person, at our
MORNING, AFTERNOON, OR EVENING.
Both require regular on-campus attendance.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
Two additional requirements apply:
COMPLETION OF IMMUNIZATIONS
A CLEAR CRIMINAL RECORD CHECK WITH VULNERABLE SECTOR SCREENING.
The Vulnerable Sector Screening takes longer to process than a standard check; we recommend starting it early to avoid it delaying your enrollment.
Graduates work in refrigerated, warm, wet, or noisy production environments. The role involves walking production floors, climbing stairs, and extended standing, along with bending, reaching, crouching, and occasional moderate lifting. Personal protective equipment is required throughout. Prolonged computer use is also part of the role, for reports and corrective action tracking.
Let’s Address A Couple of Things That Might Come To Mind
The time
Fifty weeks alongside a full-time job is a serious commitment. Add a commute to labs, and for most people, a family. We’re not going to pretend that’s easy.
Here’s what makes it possible:
- Three start times (morning, afternoon, and evening), built around a work schedule.
- Hybrid delivery, so you’re studying mostly from home except on lab days.
- And you keep earning the whole time; this isn’t a program that asks you to stop working to complete it.
If your employer agrees to provide the experience the program requires, your placement can be completed at your current workplace, and those hours count toward the 80.
The certificate
A recognized preventive-controls certificate costs a few hundred dollars and takes roughly 15 hours to complete online. If you already have industry experience, the certificate might be enough on paper, and we’re not going to tell you otherwise.
What it doesn’t include is laboratory work. This program does: thirteen named determinations, run by hand, in the 160-hour Food Analysis course.
This occupation requires a certificate, experience, and an extensive quality assurance background. A certificate covers one of the three. If you already work in food manufacturing, you hold two of those three. This program builds the third.
The commute
The laboratory work and the field placement take place in person at Scarborough or Mississauga. There’s no version of this program without that. If you’re not within reach of either campus, this program isn’t the right fit.
The cost
The total cost is $14,145 ($12,750 tuition, $1,210 books, $185 fees) for a program designed to prepare you for supervisory and coordination-level roles in food safety and quality.
Guidance is provided for different types of student funding.
No graduates yet
This is a new program, so there’s no alumni network and no employment data to point to yet.
What we can show you is who built it, exactly what you do in the lab, and what’s guaranteed: the curriculum, the instructor’s credentials, and the field placement.
Where This Can Take You
No single job title describes this work. It’s a progression, and here’s how it runs.
Entry point: Testers and graders, food and beverage processing
Many of our students are already at this stage.
Technologist: Chemical technologists and technicians
Applying analytical and quality methods at a higher level of responsibility.
Supervisor: Supervisors, food and beverage processing
Official example job titles include “HACCP coordinator.” In the Toronto region, wages in this occupation run up to $48.08/hour at the top of the range, across roughly 10,300 roles in Ontario’s food sector.
Management: Manufacturing managers
In Ontario, wages in this occupation range from $33.65 to $96.15/hour, across roughly 50,200 roles.
Source: Job Bank and Statistics Canada, NOC 2021 unit group profiles, Toronto region, 2023–24 reference period.
You Don’t Have to Start Over
Whatever you trained in before, this program doesn’t ask you to throw that out and begin again from zero
IT GIVES YOU A DIRECT ROUTE INTO THE CANADIAN FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY WORK, BUILT AROUND REAL HANDS-ON TIME AND A GUARANTEED PLACEMENT, IN 50 WEEKS.
If this sounds like the door you’ve been waiting for, request more information and one of our advisors will walk you through it.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Admission requires an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent, or Mature Student Status with the Wonderlic SLE-Q entrance assessment. No degree and no prior food safety qualification is required.
This program is built for people with prior food manufacturing experience, along with internationally trained food professionals and people looking to re-enter the industry.
If you’re coming to food safety from outside the industry, our entry-level Food Safety and Quality Assurance diploma is the right starting point.
That program is entry-level, built for people with no food background. This program is advanced, built for people already working in food manufacturing who are ready to take on the judgment, documentation, and audit-readiness responsibilities above a technician role.
No certification is issued as part of this diploma. Oxford College is not an authorized provider of HACCP, PCQI, SQF, or comparable industry certifications. This program builds the knowledge and skills to pursue those certifications independently, through the bodies that award them.
You’ll perform thirteen named physicochemical determinations, the same kind of routine testing a plant facility runs against a product’s specification, as part of the 160-hour Food Analysis course.
Yes. Three start times, morning, afternoon, and evening, are built around a work schedule. Availability of a specific time is confirmed by admissions at enrollment.
Yes. Every student completes a guaranteed 80-hour field placement in a food production facility, laboratory, or regulatory environment, evaluated by both a host supervisor and a college field instructor.
If your employer agrees to provide the experience the program requires, yes. Your placement can be completed at your current workplace, and those hours count toward the 80.
This program is built to fast-track your readiness for supervisory and coordination-level roles, developing the judgment, documentation skills, and audit-readiness that occupations like HACCP Coordinator require. It doesn’t guarantee a promotion or a specific job outcome; that depends on your employer and the role you’re applying for.
The total cost is $14,145 ($12,750 tuition, $1,210 books, $185 fees).
Yes. Laboratory work and field placement are completed in person, at our Scarborough and Mississauga campuses.
See Next intake below, or request info and an advisor will confirm the current start date for your preferred campus and schedule.
Next intake