HACCP

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that addresses physical, chemical, and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection.

HACCP is used in the food industry to identify potential food safety hazards, so that key actions, known as Critical Control Points (CCPs) can be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of the hazards being realized. The system is used at all stages of food production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution..etc. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) say that their mandatory HACCP programs for juice and meat are an effective approach to food safety and protecting public health.

The HACCP system can be used at all stages of a food chain, from Food Production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution, etc. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) say that their mandatory HACCP programs for juice and meat are an effective approach to food safety and protecting public health. Meat HACCP systems are regulated by the USDA, while seafood and juice are regulated by the FDA. The use of HACCP is currently voluntary in other food industries.

The HACCP seven principles:

Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis. – Plans determine the food safety hazards and identify the preventive measures the plan can apply to control these hazards. A food safety hazard is any biological, chemical, or physical property that may cause a food to be unsafe for human consumption.

Principle 2: Identify critical control points. – A critical control point (CCP) is a point, step, or procedure in a food manufacturing process at which control can be applied and, as a result, a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level.

Principle 3: Establish critical limits for each critical control point. – A critical limit is the maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical hazard must be controlled at a critical control point to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level.

Principle 4: Establish critical control point monitoring requirements. – Monitoring activities are necessary to ensure that the process is under control at each critical control point. In the United States, the FSIS is requiring that each monitoring procedure and its frequency be listed in the HACCP plan.

Principle 5: Establish corrective actions. – These are actions to be taken when monitoring indicates a deviation from an established critical limit. The final rule requires a plant's HACCP plan to identify the corrective actions to be taken if a critical limit is not met. Corrective actions are intended to ensure that no product injurious to health or otherwise adulterated as a result of the deviation enters commerce.

Principle 6: Establish procedures for ensuring the HACCP system is working as intended. – Validation ensures that the plants do what they were designed to do; that is, they are successful in ensuring the production of a safe product. Plants will be required to validate their own HACCP plans. FSIS will not approve HACCP plans in advance, but will review them for conformance with the final rule. Verification ensures the HACCP plan is adequate, that is, working as intended. Verification procedures may include such activities as review of HACCP plans, CCP records, critical limits and microbial sampling and analysis. FSIS is requiring that the HACCP plan include verification tasks to be performed by plant personnel. Verification tasks would also be performed by FSIS inspectors. Both FSIS and industry will undertake microbial testing as one of several verification activities. Verification also includes 'validation' – the process of finding evidence for the accuracy of the HACCP system (e.g. scientific evidence for critical limitations).

Principle 7: Establish record keeping procedures. – The HACCP regulation requires that all plants maintain certain documents, including its hazard analysis and written HACCP plan, and records documenting the monitoring of critical control points, critical limits, verification activities, and the handling of processing deviations.


HACCP versus FSMS to ISO 22000

FSMS to ISO 22000 is the new standard bound to replace HACCP on issues related to food safety. Although several companies, especially the big ones, have either implemented or are on the point of implementing ISO 22000, there are many others which are hesitant to adopt it. The main reason behind that is the lack of information and the fear that the new standard is too demanding in terms of bureaucratic work.

FSMS to ISO 22000 will not replace HACCP. The requirements for HACCP are set with global agreement by the United Nations Codex Alimentarius Commission - and these are the basis for international trade and national legislation around the world. HACCP is a system - ISO 22000 is a standard. ISO 22000 can be used to measure the success of a company's implementation of HACCP, as well as pre-requsites to HACCP and quality systems. There are other standards that can also be used - ISO 22000 is not the only one.

As a note, ISO 22000 is NOT recognized as yet (26/06/2012) by the GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) as opposed to many other food safety standards, including the following:

  • BRC Global Standard for Food Safety (Issue 6)
  • Canada GAP (Canadian Horticultural Council On-Farm Food Safety Program)
  • FSSC 22000 Food Products
  • Global Aquaculture Alliance Seafood Processing Standard
  • GLOBAL G.A.P.
  • Global Red Meat Standard (GRMS)
  • IFS Food Version 6
  • PrimusGFS
  • Safe Quality Food (SQF)

We are offering accredited certificate with Right accreditation Board for ISO 22000 globally.