Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)

Basic Concepts and Implementation of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP). To improve product safety, the food industries are adopting a process control system known as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP).

HACCP is a food safety management system, which concentrates on prevention strategies for known hazards and risks of them occurring at specific points in the food chain. The system improves product safety by anticipating and preventing hazards before they occur.

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Basic Information of HACCP

Hazard: The potential to cause harm. Hazards can be physical, chemical, and biological.

Risk: Probability that conditions will lead to a hazard.

Control point: Operation (practice, preparation step, procedure) to which a preventive control measure can be applied

Critical Control Point (CCP): Operation (practice, preparation step, procedure) to which a preventive or control measure can be applied that would eliminate, prevent, or minimize hazards.

Control Measures: Activities that eliminate hazards or reduce occurrence to an acceptable level.

Monitoring: Observations or measurements to assess whether control measures at a critical point are being implemented effectively.

Critical limit: The value of the control measure, determined during monitoring, distinguishes acceptable and unacceptable.

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP): Systematic approach to the identification and assessment of the hazards and risks associated with a product manufacturing operation and the defining of the means to their control.

Basic Concept of HACCP

Products are sensitive to contamination by bacteria, viruses, and parasites. After becoming contaminated, they provide an excellent environment for the growth of bacteria. Bacterial contamination and growth are a problem because they may result in foodborne illness. To improve product safety, the food industries are adopting a process control system known as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). HACCP is a food safety management system, which concentrates on prevention strategies for known hazards and risks of them occurring at specific points in the food chain. The system improves product safety by anticipating and preventing hazards before they occur.

HACCP provides a system to reduce the risk of a foodborne illness outbreak by:

Identifying
Preventing, and
Correcting problems throughout the flow of products HACCP focuses on:
Identifying hazards
Identifying control points from receiving through serving
Setting critical limits for critical control points
Monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of the control measures
Taking corrective actions

The system helps us:

Identify products, hazards, and processes most likely to cause consumer complaints.
Develop control points through the flow of products to reduce risks of product defect outbreaks.
Monitor and verify product safety in our operation.

Benefits of Implementing HACCP

To the company

Safe Production - lower business risk
Improved/maintained reputation
Compliance with legislation
The staff has clearer ideas of product safety requirements and practices
Demonstrates company commitment to product safety
Better staff organization/use of time
Long-term reduction in wastage (in the short term wastage costs may go up due to corrective actions, requiring disposal of a product as a result of failure to control CCPs properly)
Less likely to receive customer complaints
Possible increase in market access

To Customers

Less risk of harm
Improved quality of product
More confidence in the product

General Approaches to Implementation of HACCP Developing a HACCP Plan

HACCP is a system of extensive evaluation and control over an entire production process for the sole purpose of reducing potential risks to consumers. A HACCP program maintains the safety and wholesomeness of products because potential hazards that may occur during processing are anticipated, evaluated, controlled, and prevented.

A hazard is defined as any biological, physical, or chemical property that could cause a product to be unsafe for consumption. Processing plants are required to have a HACCP plan for each product. The general Steps for developing a HACCP plan are briefly described below.

HACCP and Implementation of a HACCP Plan

Support of Management

The success of HACCP depends upon the behaviour and commitment of all plant employees to product safety. Management must provide financial and philosophical support to HACCP because it demonstrates an awareness of the benefits of the program. Employees will not take HACCP seriously if it does not receive visible support from their supervisors and upper management.

Establish a HACCP Team

HACCP is a program for the entire company; therefore, a team of individuals from different areas of production and processing should be involved in developing the HACCP plan. The team must include individuals with specific expertise, such as production, processing, quality control, sanitation, microbiology, plant engineering, and research and development.

This should make it easier to identify the hazards associated with each product. An HACCP coordinator should be chosen to work with the HACCP team and company management to develop, implement, and manage the HACCP plan.

Product Description

Plants are required to have a HACCP plan for each product they make. With each HACCP plan, a complete description of the product and the raw ingredients that go into the product are required. Some of the product description information that should be listed for each product includes:

Product's common name.
How the product will be used.
Type of packaging material.
Length of product's shelf-life and at what temperature.
Where a product will be sold.
Product labelling instructions.
Any special instructions for the product.

Employee Training of HACCP

All employees should be given HACCP training, but at levels relating to their responsibilities within the HACCP plan. Extensive training of line workers is critical because these are the individuals responsible for the product. Everyone at the facility in contact with the products should receive an overview of HACCP, as well as information regarding the company’s HACCP policies and procedures.

7 Principles of HACCP

Once the HACCP team has been identified, the team should use the basic principles of HACCP to design a plan. The basic principles of HACCP are listed in Table 1 and are briefly described below.

Principle 1: Hazard Analysis.

The first step in designing a HACCP plan is to conduct an analysis of hazards associated with each product. During hazard analysis, the HACCP team evaluates all of the procedures concerned with the production, distribution, and use of raw materials for potential problems that could occur. The HACCP team should list the type of problem (biological, chemical, or physical) and the appropriate preventive action necessary to keep the problem from occurring.

It may be useful to draw a flow diagram detailing production steps from receiving to the consumer and to present the hazard analyses in a table format. Once a flow diagram has been developed, it is important to check it to make sure that it is correct, and that steps have not been omitted.

Principle 2: Identity CCP's

The next and most important step is to determine the critical control points (CCPs) in the process or the points at which a loss of control could result in a biological, chemical, or physical health hazard. CCPs vary for different products, particularly if your facility processes raw and finished products. In some cases, it may be difficult to decide if a processing step is a CCP. As a result, many companies will establish too many CCPs. A CCP decision tree, such as the one shown in Figure 2, can be used to identify CCPs.

CCPs should be noted on the flow diagram as part of the HACCP documentation. An example of a CCP for a fully cooked product is the cooking process because proper cooking eliminates pathogenic bacteria; however, after cooking, care should be taken to keep the product from being contaminated again. While proper cooking may be addressed in the plants' standard operating procedures (SOPs), it is also a CCP and should be listed as such. In raw products, pathogenic bacteria may be reduced and their growth controlled using a well-designed HACCP plan, but elimination requires additional measures.

Principle 3: Establish critical limits

Once the CCPs have been determined, a critical limit or the amount of acceptable deviation has to be established for each CCP. Critical limits are set for product safety and not product quality. For example, the critical limit for frozen raw poultry storage and shipping would require the product to be held below 41 degrees F, which does not constitute frozen but prevents bacterial growth. In a cooked product, an example of a critical limit would be that the internal temperature of the product reaches at least 160 degrees F.

Principle 4: Monitoring critical limits

All CCPs must be monitored to ensure that the process remains within critical limits. The HACCP team needs to establish methods not only for monitoring each CCP but also for determining the frequency of CCP evaluation.

Monitoring methods should be appropriate for online use and should provide a simple but rapid assessment. For example, visual observations, aroma, and measurements of temperature, pH, moisture, fat, etc. are commonly used to monitor poultry processing CCPs. Traditionally, microbiological testing has not been used to monitor CCPs because procedures are time-consuming; however, with the advent of new rapid methods, microbiological testing could provide valuable information within minutes.

Principle 5: Corrective action

In addition to monitoring CCPs, procedures should be developed to describe what steps will be taken if the process goes out of control. The corrective action plan must include: 1) who is responsible for regaining control of the process, 2) how to regain control, 3) what to do with the product that was produced during the loss of control, and 4) how to handle a product recall.

Principle 6: Record-keeping

Documentation of a formal HACCP plan for all products is required. Detailed records must be kept of data recorded at CCP's. Effective record-keeping includes:

List of HACCP team members and their responsibilities.
All records should be dated. All products and their intended use should be identified.
HACCP flow diagrams with all CCPs.
List of all critical limits and preventive measures.
Monitoring and verification plans.
The course of action when a critical limit. deviation occurs, and person(s) responsible for corrective actions.
Procedures for product handling when deviation from a critical limit occurs.
Appropriate product packaging information and expected product shelf-life.
HACCP check-off sheets for each shift which must be signed upon completion of a step.
HACCP plan reviews, date of reviews, and reviewer's initials.
Records of all deviations.

Principle 7: HACCP Verification

Once established, each HACCP plan will change as the company adds new products, updates old products, installs new equipment, or changes product-handling procedures. It is important to periodically verify that the HACCP plan is working.

Verification procedures may include:

Routine check of all HACCP plans and records.
Routine check of monitoring procedures and equipment.
Random microbiological sampling of all product contact surfaces, as well as a portion of the product.
Official evaluation of the product.
Review of all critical limit deviations and product handling.

Conclusion

HACCP was designed to prevent hazardous products from leaving the manufacturing or processing facility. However, the key to the success of HACCP is employee training, behavior, and attitude. Some companies are under the misconception that they already have a HACCP plan because they are adequately controlling all areas where safety could be compromised. The difference is that rather than monitoring isolated processing steps, a HACCP approach controls the entire production process as an integrated system.

SOP for Waste Management | Procedures for Handling and Storage, or Disposal of Waste

Although HACCP provides assurance that the product is safe, there is no way to completely eliminate all hazards. HACCP is most effective when used with other control systems. Total Quality Management programs or ISO 9000 and Standard Operating Procedures should be used along with HACCP to improve product safety, product quality, and plant productivity by providing intimate knowledge of the production process, production environment, and processing equipment.