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Food safety is a top priority for all organizations. WHO says that approximately 600 million, nearly 1 in 10 people fall ill due to contaminated food and 420 000 die every year in the world, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years (DALYs). The HACCP plan is a robust system to mitigate and control food safety risks.
What is HACCP?
HACCP which stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is an internationally recognized methodology to reduce food safety-related risks. It identifies the potential dangers to public health and serves as a proactive system for food safety by prescribing some critical control points.
What does a HACCP plan stand for?
While HACCP is an approach, an HACCP plan defines the necessity of food safety-related procedures to be adhered to maintain food safety.7 principles of the HACCP system
1. Conduct hazard analysis
The first principle of the HACCP plan covers evaluating the business processes and identifying the hazards exposed to food products.
2. Determine Critical Control Points (CCPs)
So, what are the CCP in HACCP? A CCP is a pause point in a production process that ensures the businesses are provided with a chance to avoid, reduce or totally eradicate a food safety hazard. This often will have a critical limit which indicates the measurements are within the boundary to mitigate food safety hazards.
3. Establish critical limits
Here it will be decided of the exact critical limits and how you can resolve risks through this.
Example:
For a business involving raw chicken, setting a temperature limit as the critical point will eliminate the hazard like Salmonella.
4. Create a monitoring system
An efficient monitoring system that ensures the critical limits are not exceeded is used.
5. Establish corrective actions
Any deviations in the critical limits should be met with predefined corrective actions.
6. Validating verification procedures
Ensuring the effectiveness of an HACCP plan proves its efficacy in preventing hazards.
7. Record-keeping procedures
Keeping all records precisely proves that the critical limits are monitored and the production system is well controlled.
HACCP System Example:
A common HACCP system in the food industry is:
Monitoring the temperature of the food
Most CCPs in food manufacturing involve temperature points. A range of sensor technologies are used to ensure the critical temperature limits. If there are any deviations in temperatures, sensors will send alerts.
To sum up,
HACCP in food safety minimizes the risk of unsafe food and ensures that food safety goes a long way.
