An Introduction to HACCP

What is in it for you?
If your food is safe you can be confident that your business will be safe. Food safety is all about making sure that food you produce or sell does not make people sick.
The food business is one of our fastest growing industries. The opportunities for success are greater than ever. Your customers will place their confidence in food produced under a food safety programme.
Food safety programmes give you control over food safety. Make sure all the people working in your business are committed to producing safe food by involving staff in the system development.
Food safety problems become easier to spot before they happen. You save time, money and worry.
There will be no “surprises”. You will have confidence in your product, because you will have control over the process.

How do I develop my food safety programme?
You are the best person to plan your food safety programme. You know your business better than anyone. You may choose to develop a programme from a code of practice or start from scratch. You may need some expert technical advice to help you identify the hazards and necessary controls.
Internationally it is recognised that the ideal tool to give assurance of food safety is the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system.

What is HACCP? 
HACCP is a system that allows you to deal with important food safety issues yourself.
It requires answers to key questions about the safety of the food that you produce or handle:
What type of business am I involved in? What are the food safety hazards associated with my business? What causes those hazards? How can I control or remove those hazards? How can I show that I have controlled or removed those hazards? What will I do if things go wrong? Once you have the answers to these questions, applied the key controls that have been identified, and kept those controls in place, you are in the position to confidently say, “I know I provide safe food.”

To be sure of this you need to know:

what you are doing

why you are doing it

that you actually are doing it. 

How HACCP works – the principles

Identify hazards, assess risk, and list controls

Determine critical control points

Specify criteria to ensure control

Establish monitoring system for control points

Take corrective action whenever monitoring indicates criteria are not met

Verify that the system is working as planned

Keep suitable records

Principle 1: Identify hazards 
It is important to be able to identify the possible microbiological, chemical and physical hazards that can occur at every stage of the food business – from growth, processing, manufacture, storage and distribution, until the point where it is sold to the customer and eaten. As far as possible you should consider how the customer might handle it too.

What are the main hazards to food? 

Microbiological Hazards: 
Any bacterium, virus, or protozoan that is capable of causing illness and that grows or may be carried on food. Well-known examples of bacteria are Campy lobacter, Listeria and Salmonella. The most likely food-borne viruses are the Norwalk type viruses. Giardia is an example of a protozoan that may be food borne. It is important to have some understanding of the risks associated with different types of microbiological hazards.

Chemical Hazards:
Examples include excessive or toxic amounts of heavy metals, chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, vitamins, minerals, preservatives, disinfectants, detergents and cleaning compounds. Some hazards may be naturally present such as in green potatoes or taro and rhubarb leaves.

Physical Hazards:
Objects that get into food, or are already present in food, may cause illness, injury or distress to the person eating it. Some examples are glass, metal fragments etc. Other contaminants such as hair or insects may be offensive but not necessarily a danger to health. They should nonetheless be considered and controlled.

Once the hazards are identified, the next step is to work out the likelihood of them happening, and then deciding on appropriate preventive measures for their control.


Principle 2: Determine critical control points 
Decide which of the control points is critical. This means identifying whether it is the essential step at which to control an identified hazard. Bear in mind that different types of hazard may have critical controls at different steps in the process.
  Control points are the points in the food processing chain where it is possible to control or remove hazards.
  Critical control points are the control points in the processing chain where it is essential to a hazard, usually because there is no later step at which to establish control. 

Principle 3: Establish critical limits 
After each control point is identified, decide how to check whether it is under control during processing. This may be by observation or by measurement (such as temperature or time).
Critical limits for critical control points are measurements such as temperature and time, that must be met, or characteristics such as appearance and texture. Critical limits need to be validated (see definitions). 

Principle 4: Establish a monitoring system
To be sure that the critical limits are always effective, it is important to set up a system to monitor and record control at the critical control point.
Monitoring is the regular measurement or observation of a critical control point to ensure it is not beyond its critical limits. 
The monitoring system must ensure any loss of control at the critical control point can be discovered in time to take corrective action before the product is rejected.
Information obtained from monitoring must be assessed by someone who has the knowledge and authority to carry out corrective actions when needed.
Quick on-line chemical and physical measurements and observations are better than microbiological tests that take time to analyse. Usually simple time and temperature records are sufficient. Often all that is needed is a system to record observations. All records and documents must be signed by the person doing the monitoring and by a responsible reviewing official of the food business.

Principle 5: Establish corrective action 
Decide exactly what corrective action to take when monitoring shows that a particular critical control point is out of control. You may need to think about reprocessing or dumping the affected product.
Take corrective action to bring the process back under control before the problem (‘deviation’) leads to a safety hazard. Consider proper management (disposition) of any adversely affected product. 
Document corrective actions in the HACCP records.

Principle 6: Establish verification procedures
Once the HACCP system is established, set up procedures to verify (check) that the system works.
Verification procedures are tests and program that make sure the HACCP system working properly. 
Examples of verification include:

• reviewing the HACCP system and its records to ensure that controls are effective 
• reviewing corrective action reports to ensure that the corrective actions were undertaken 
• occasional testing to demonstrate that control has been maintained.

Principle 7: Establish record keeping and documentation requirements 
The level of documentation required will depend upon the needs and the complexity of the food business.
In a small business, a simple log book or diary may be all that is needed.
If your business is bigger or more complex, more detailed or formal documentation will be necessary.
Record keeping and documentation systems must meet the needs of the business and be adequate to show that the food safety program is working.