HACCP is a food safety and risk assessment plan that was originally developed in the 1960’s by NASA and a group of food safety specialists. HACCP can be applied to all processes throughout each and every stage of the food supply chain. This includes production, preparation, packaging and distribution. As each food business is different, each will have different food safety processes and procedures. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points and outlines 7 key principles in food safety:
- Conduct a Hazard Analysis – An established and food safety hazard which needs to be identified and controlled is anything that causes food to become harmful or unsafe for human consumption. They are categorized as physical, biological or chemical hazards.
- Determine Critical Control Points – A critical control point is a step, point or procedure that is applied during the food manufacturing process to control the risk of potential hazards occurring. A CCP can also monitor an individual parameter. For example, ensuring that all potential allergens are labelled on a food or that the garbage bins are cleaned and sanitized weekly. The result of applying a CCP should be to prevent, eliminate or minimize the risk of a hazard to a safe and acceptable level.
- Establish Critical Limits – Critical limits are the minimum and maximum limits of each separate CCP. These limits are set so that each hazard is managed safely in order to eliminate, prevent or manage food safety risks. Critical limits must be something that can be monitored by measurement or observation. They must be scientifically and/or regulatory based. F.E: temperature and time.
- Establish CCP Monitoring Procedures – The monitoring of each CCP is essential to make sure that hazards don’t go beyond the critical limits set. The ways that CCPs are monitored will vary, however, some examples might be:
- Using a probe thermometer daily to check the temperature of a freezer.
- Scheduling regular pest inspections to maintain bait traps.
- Having staff record certain cleaning procedures in the Food Safety Program.
- In many cases, food safety legislation states that all potential hazards must be continually monitored to ensure they do not exceed their critical limits.
- Establish Corrective Actions – If the criteria for a CCP is not being met, some type of corrective action must be taken. They must meet the standards established in Principle 3, must be based on facts for normal working conditions and be measurable.
- Establish Verification Procedures – Procedures are to be put in place to ensure that all businesses throughout the entire food supply-chain are successfully producing a product that’s safe for humans to eat. The HACCP principles were designed so that they could be applied to each individual business throughout the food manufacturing process. It’s the responsibility of the business to ensure that they have adapted and applied the HACCP principles to each necessary aspect of their business.
- Record Keeping – Record-keeping and documentation procedures should be simple to complete and include information that illustrates that the established standards are being met. Employees need to be trained on the record-keeping procedures and why it is a critical part of their job. Examples of records include time/temperature logs, checklists, forms, flowcharts and employee training records.
