Food safety programs

What does HACCP stand HACCP is designed to prevent rather than catch potential hazards. HACCP stands
for? for

Hazard

Analysis

Critical

Control

Points

Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis. – Plans determine the food safety

What are its key principles?
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, including details of the monitoring procedure and its
frequency.

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.

Hazard analysis

To analyse a hazard, break down each step within a food handling stage and look
at the risks that could happen such as:

Incorrect temperatures

Evidence of pests

Condition of packaging

Use by dates

Cross contamination

Physical contaminants

Chemical contaminants

Presence of bacteria due to incorrect cooking/reheating temperatures

Poor hygiene of food handler

And the list goes on…

For example, let’s look at receiving goods (or accepting a delivery) and consider
the following potential hazards:

Refrigerated food should be under 5°C and frozen foods should be frozen
solid, with no signs of thawing

Check labels on incoming items – ‘Use by’ or ‘best before’ dates should be
valid. Also the supplier may have sent the wrong product, a substitute
product or used the wrong label

Containers and packaging must show no signs of vermin infestation,

damage or tampering. Also ensure food is not transported where
chemicals can spill and cause cross contamination

If you found a potential risk, you would then develop a control and a critical
control point.

If any of these hazards were evident you would not accept the food. The food does
not move on to the next step and does NOT end up with the consumer

Critical control points Critical control points (CCPs) are steps in each food handling stage where we can
control, eliminate, or reduce hazards to an acceptable level. Examples include:

Ensuring your refrigerated meat storage is below 5°C at all times

Checking the ‘use by’ date for spreads and chutneys before use

In many cases, CCPs need an associated critical control limit. These limits must
describe a measurable range or point that is acceptable such as temperature, time,
use-by dates, acidity (pH), or moisture (Aw). However, not every CCP will have a
Critical Control Limit. Some we control by skills and knowledge. For example, We
know that our food should not be transported with chemicals and we can check for
this by looking at the inside of the delivery vehicle
Monitoring Once you have established your CCPs and CCLs, you must start monitoring them,
for example by:

Using a thermometer to take temperatures

Measuring pH

Observing staff to ensure they are following guidelines for personal

hygiene

Visually inspecting a food product or handling procedure

Temperature and food

Operating temperatures for processing foods vary depending on how the

food product

It is your responsibility to know the temperature requirements for storing,

preparing and processing food products!

Businesses that handle potentially hazardous foods must have a probe

thermometer accurate to +/- 1ºC

Remember, monitoring is not just done by staff to see that critical control points
are working. It must also be done by you to ensure staff are following your food
safety program. Examples might include:

Observing staff to make sure that they are following guidelines for
personal hygiene

Checking logs to make sure they are being filled out correctly

Inspecting cool rooms to make sure food is stacked safely and labeled
correctly

Corrective If a critical limit is reached or exceeded, or if any food safety incident occurs,
action corrective action must be taken using these three steps:

1. Decide what to do with food - If you discover a food safety hazard, (e.g.
your refrigerator is operating at 10°C and potentially hazardous food
stored in the refrigerator is in the danger zone,) a decision needs to be
made with what to do with this food. Consider the 2-hour/4-hour rule.

2. Correct the process - Determine a process that prevents this from

occurring again. Perhaps the cleaner unplugged the fridge to use the floor
polisher and forgot to plug it back in. Train the cleaner to use a different
power point or use a sign to alert people to which is the fridge plug.
 3. Document the event - Records need to be kept that describe the outcome
of the corrective action, particularly at Critical Control Points (CCPs). This is
for review purposes, and to prove that the appropriate corrective action
has been taken to ensure the unsafe food is not served to a consumer.

If you get a food safety complaint from a consumer, respond quickly and collect
accurate information such as:

What is it?

Where did it come from?

How did it get there?

How can it be prevented from recurring?

Record keeping
Record keeping is an essential element of a HACCP program. So always

write it down, check it and file it

Records must be kept for each CCP, especially for temperatures. Use
monitoring charts for fridges, ovens, hot holding units etc

All records must be checked for accuracy and completeness on a daily,

weekly or monthly basis depending on your procedures

Your records tell you if your program is effective at preventing food

poisoning

If someone gets ill and you have been diligent with your record keeping
you can show that the illness was not due to your negligence

You must keep your records as evidence that you have shown due
diligence

Reviews and audits Within 3 months of implementing your new food safety program, you should
conduct a review and then at least every year thereafter

Reviews verify that your food safety program is working and if not, how to fix it
and should cover the systems effectiveness in controlling hazards, that CCPs are
appropriate and that Critical Limits are relevant to the CCPs.

Audits can be external (by a hired consultant or by a local health authority) or

internal (by a Manager or Supervisor) and should be conducted annually, on a
quiet day, with two people, one to complete the recording and the other to do the
checking. It compares what the food safety plan says should be taking place and
what is actually taking place and should cover:

The completeness and accuracy of records

The programs’ compliance with all relevant standards and requirements

The coverage of all identifiable hazards and the identification of any

overlooked hazards

Product recalls
A food-borne outbreak of poisoning can destroy the reputation of your
business. The majority of food-borne illness and death occur as a result of
food prepared in foodservice establishments and in the home. However,
food-processing plants are sometimes responsible for food-borne
outbreaks and product recalls

Current food product recalls are listed here:

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumerinformation/foodrecalls/curr
entconsumerlevelrecalls/

Recalled products must be taken out of stock, kept in a place where there
is no danger of the product being used. The product must be labeled
clearly and stored appropriately to await collection by the supplier or
inspection by health authorities

Sampling and testing may be required by the Health department (particularly

if they are responding to a complaint) or an independent laboratory. If you are
involved with a sampling program, things to note are:

How is the sample collected? (Are the samples collected with, and stored
in, sterile utensils and containers?)

How is the sample being handled after it leaves your workplace? (Will it be
sealed, stored under temperature control etc)

Does the laboratory have experience and accreditation in food sampling?

Will the laboratory provide support in interpreting the results obtained?