Compiled by Angela Godwin

Partnership to develop food-safety compliance system
Smart Online Inc., provider of Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) for the small-business market, will partner with FoodLogiQ, LLC, designer of workflow, compliance and traceability systems, to develop branded food-safety compliance systems for industry associations. Under the partnership, Smart Online’s business application suite will incorporate FoodLogiQ food-industry traceability and compliance functionality. The new application is expected to help farmers, food manufacturers, grocers and restaurants meet their business and compliance needs at the same time. It will be customized to provide anonymous, aggregate data to industry associations to confirm their memberships’ level of compliance. Through the application, audit results from the associations’ members can be scheduled and recorded to help assure compliance to label claims of quality and safety.

Lithography light source manufacturer opens new facility

Gigaphoton Inc., a lithography light source manufacturer for the global semiconductor industry, announced that it has completed construction of a new building at its headquarters campus in Oyama, Japan. The new facility will house a state-of-the-art, Class 1,000 cleanroom that features expanded research and development capabilities and laser light source maintenance training for field service engineers. The new facility will also house Gigaphoton’s customer support administrative functions, as well as a spare parts warehouse.

According to Dr. Yuji Watanabe, president and representative director of Gigaphoton, the company’s decision to expand its existing facilities was based on the increased demand for its advanced light sources. “Gigaphoton’s high-quality, extremely reliable, and high-uptime products enable chipmakers’ fabs to run at benchmark levels. As a result, customers continue to turn to us as they realize the benefits afforded by our advanced lithography light source solutions, for which we provide superior service and support,” said Watanabe.

Dates announced for STAR Center training

Baxa Corporation has published the 2007 dates for training at its STAR (Skills Training, Academics and Resources) Center, a facility designed for cleanroom and pharmacy practice demonstration. The center (www.baxa.com/starcenter) is located at the company’s world headquarters south of Denver, Colorado. Baxa Corporation built the facility to provide professional education on pharmacy practice, cleanroom principles and compliance to regulatory requirements.

The STAR Center’s initial course offering, “Compliance Tools and Aseptic Certification for USP <797>,” debuted in September 2006, with sessions repeated in October and November. The USP 797 course will also be held: March 20-22; May 22-24; July 24-26; September 18-20; and October 23-25.

The ACPE-certified training targets pharmacy and IV managers, as well as personnel who compound sterile products or who are implementing cleanroom principles and practices that comply with USP <797> and industry best practice. Topics include cleanroom physical design and layout, engineering controls and airflow science, media fill testing, and principles associated with workflow, staff training, cleaning, monitoring, validation and documentation.