Food Safety and Quality Assurance Diploma, Scarborough & Mississauga
A 50-week hybrid diploma with a guaranteed 80-hour placement, so that your first day on the job does not feel like your first.
Two courses and your placement are in person. You spend eighty hours within a working food operation before you ever apply for a job.
Program Overview
Join the 50-week Food Safety and Quality Assurance Diploma at Oxford College.
Offered at our Scarborough and Mississauga campuses.
Roles this program prepares you for a food quality control or food safety technician. Ten courses, 1,000 hours, mostly online synchronous, with two courses and your placement in person.
Roles this program prepares you for:
- Quality Control Technician
- Food Safety Technician
- Quality Assurance Assistant
- Production or Packaging Technician
- Chemistry or Microbiology Laboratory Assistant
50 Weeks
Hybrid diploma, 1,000 hours across ten courses
80 Hours
Guaranteed industry placement,arranged by the college
11,500
Average time from graduation to first job
$30.00/hr
Toronto-region median wage for NOC 22100 (Job Bank, 2023–2024)
What This Job Is
This program prepares you to become a food quality control or food safety technician.
Quality control and food safety technicians work within food and beverage manufacturing plants, processing facilities, and packaging operations.
The job involves pulling samples off the line, running basic tests, monitoring conditions such as temperature and sanitation, and documenting it all. Every batch, every check, every deviation gets documented, because that paperwork is what an auditor or inspector reviews.
Technicians follow structured systems (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)-based food safety programs, and Good Manufacturing Practices) that tell them what to check and how often to check, so the job is as much about knowing the system as it is about knowing the science.
This is what the Food Safety and Quality Assurance Diploma is built to prepare you for: a 50-week, hybrid program that takes you from no food or science background to applying for one of these roles already knowing how the paperwork, the testing, and the routines work, because you’ve spent 80 hours doing them.
Statistics Canada classifies this occupation as NOC 22100, Chemical technologists and technicians.
Why Choose This Career
Toronto is home to 56,400 of Ontario’s 132,400 food manufacturing making it one of the biggest employment opportunities for graduates.
Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector needs to hire roughly 11,500 people a year from now until 2030, driven largely by an estimated 66,800 retirements.
Nearly a quarter of the current workforce, 24%, is between 55 and 64 years old (Food Processing Skills Canada). 56,400 of Ontario’s 132,400 food manufacturing jobs are in the Toronto region (Job Bank / Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey).
About 4 million Canadians, roughly 1 in 8, get a food-borne illness every year, resulting in an estimated 11,600 hospitalizations and 238 deaths (Public Health Agency of Canada). From 2024 to 2025, there were 233 food recalls, 52 of them microbiological and 44 allergen-related (Canadian Food Inspection Agency).
Statistics Canada classifies this occupation as NOC 22100, Chemical technologists and technicians.
*Source: Job Bank
Graduate with an 80-Hour Industry Placement Experience
Every student completes a guaranteed 80-hour industry placement, arranged by the college. It’s an off-campus practicum in a working food operation, formally assessed through attendance and a performance evaluation.
The placement counts as Canadian work experience, and it’s the closest thing to doing the job before you have it: by the time you finish, you’ve already stood at a bench, followed a system, and filled out the paperwork the way a real facility expects it filled out.
Two courses bring you into a lab before your placement even starts. Food Chemistry and Food Microbiology are taught in person on campus, totalling 160 hours combined, with hands-on lab activities in both courses. That’s where you first practice sampling, testing, and monitoring routines.
- Guaranteed placement, arranged for you
80 hours in a working food operation, formally assessed through attendance and a performance evaluation, and counted as Canadian work experience. - Real lab time before you graduate
Food Chemistry and Food Microbiology are taught in person, 160 hours combined, with hands-on lab activities in both. - Hybrid delivery that fits around your commitments
Most coursework is online synchronous. Two courses and your placement are in person, at our Scarborough or Mississauga campus. - No science background required
The program teaches everything. No prior knowledge of food or science is assumed. - Three intakes a year
January, May and September, at our Scarborough and Mississauga campuses.
Our Full Curriculum
Ten courses, 1,000 hours.
| COURSE | HOURS | DELIVERY |
| Essential Skills II | 60 | — |
| Canadian Food Safety Law and Regulation | 120 | Online synchronous |
| Principles of Food Science | 160 | Online synchronous |
| Food Chemistry | 80 | In person and online synchronous |
| Hazard Analysis and Preventative Controls | 60 | Online synchronous |
| Food Microbiology | 80 | In person and online synchronous |
| Principles of Food Safety and Quality Assurance | 160 | Online synchronous |
| Cleaning and Sanitation | 80 | Online synchronous |
| Food Safety Engineering | 120 | Online synchronous |
| Placement | 80 | Off-campus practicum |
Areas of Focus
- Food sampling and safe handling procedures
- Basic food testing methods and equipment use
- Proximate analysis foundations
- Food microbiology and environmental monitoring
- HACCP principles and preventative controls
- Cleaning and sanitation in food operations
- Food law, labelling and regulatory compliance
- Data interpretation, reporting and documentation
Most of this job is documentation, and it’s the thing an interviewer will actually ask you about.
Program Details
| Duration | 50 weeks, 1,000 hours |
| Delivery | Hybrid (mostly online synchronous; Food Chemistry, Food Microbiology and placement in person) |
| Credential | Diploma |
| Placement | Guaranteed 80-hour off-campus practicum |
| Campuses | Scarborough and Mississauga |
| Intakes | Three a year: January, May and September |
| Occupation | NOC 22100, Chemical technologists and technicians |
How We Compare to Others
You’re likely comparing a few options right now. Here’s how this diploma compares against the alternatives.
| DIMENSION | OXFORD COLLEGE FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE | PUBLIC COLLEGE ADVANCED DIPLOMAS | FOOD HANDLER AND HACCP CERTIFICATES |
| Length | 50 weeks | 156 weeks, full-time | A few hours |
| Entry | OSSD, or Wonderlic assessment for mature students | OSSD plus specific Grade 11 and 12 credits at minimum grades | Open |
| Study pattern | Mostly online synchronous, two courses on campus | Full-time on campus | Online |
| Work experience | Guaranteed 80-hour industry placement | Optional co-op | None |
| Intakes | Three a year | Typically annual | Anytime |
| What it qualifies you for | Quality, testing and lab technician roles | Quality, testing and lab technician roles | Handling food safely, not testing it |
Same technician roles as a three-year advanced diploma, in 50 weeks, with a guaranteed placement built in.
Who Teaches It
Dr. Hanna Sharafi, PhD
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.
Admissions and Format
Here’s what you need to apply, and how the program runs.
“What do I need to get in?”
You can apply with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent, or as a Mature Student (19+) by passing the Wonderlic SLE-Q with a minimum score of 17.
You’ll also need a completed immunization record and a clear Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector Screening (CPIC with VSS). Both are required before placement.
“How does the schedule work?”
The program is hybrid: 50 weeks, 1,000 hours, mostly online synchronous. Two courses (Food Chemistry and Food Microbiology) and your placement are in person. Classes run at our Scarborough or Mississauga campus.
Three intakes a year: January, May and September.
“What’s the work environment like?”
Food production environments can be refrigerated, humid, hot or noisy. Expect standing and walking for extended periods, as well as bending, reaching, crouching, occasional lifting, and wearing protective equipment.
“How much does the program cost, and is financial aid available?”
Total program cost is $14,145.
$12,750
Tuition
$1,210
Books
$185
Fees
The occupation this program prepares you for, NOC 22100 (Chemical technologists and technicians), has a Toronto-region median wage of $30.00/hour, roughly $58,500 a year at full-time hours (Job Bank, 2023 to 2024 reference period).
The cost of this program is close to a quarter of a year’s median employee pay, or about three months of full-time earnings at that wage. This is a gross, before-tax figure. It assumes full-time work at the median wage, which is a ceiling for a new graduate rather than what to expect, and it’s also based on personal circumstances. That’s one way to measure the ROI of getting trained quickly for real, in-demand work.
If you need help figuring out how to pay for it, we’re here for that too. Guidance is available on the different types of student funding you may qualify for.
Admission Requirements
| Requirement | Detail |
| Academic | Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent |
| Mature student route | 19+ with a Wonderlic SLE-Q score of at least 17 |
| Health Check | Completed immunization record, required before placement |
| Criminal Record | Clear Criminal Record Check with Vulnerable Sector Screening (CPIC with VSS) |
| Science background | Not required — the program teaches everything |
Three intakes a year: January, May and September.
Your First Shift Starts Here
If this sounds like the career you’ve been trying to get into, the next step is simple: request more information, and one of our advisors will walk you through the program, the campuses, and how to apply.
Guidance is available on the different types of student funding you may qualify for.
PLEASE NOTE:
This is a hybrid program
(mostly online synchronous, with two courses and an 80-hour placement in person), offered at our Scarborough and Mississauga campuses.
For immediate questions, call us directly at: 1-866-918-0657