UNIT - V

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a

systematic preventive approach to food 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 (CCP's) can be taken to reduce or eliminate the
risk of the hazards being realised. The system is used at all stages of
food production and preparation processes.

Today HACCP is being applied to industries other than food, such as

cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

This method, which in effect seeks to plan out unsafe practices, differs from traditional
"produce and test" quality assurance methods which are less successful and inappropriate
for highly perishable foods

The HACCP Seven Principles

HACCP is based around seven established principles.

Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis. Plants determine the food

safety hazards and identify the preventive measures the plant 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 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

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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 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.

Principle 7: Establish procedures for verifying the HACCP

system is working as intended. Validation ensures that the plans do
what they were designed to do; that is, they are successful in ensuring
the production of 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. The occurrence of the identified food safety hazard.

This flow diagram is representative of HACCP for the food industry;

the HACCP program can be adapted for other industries as well.

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History

The impetus behind modern HACCP programs first began as a natural

extension of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) that food
companies had been using as a part of their normal operations. A
system was needed that enabled the production of safe, nutritional
products for use by NASA starting in the late 1950’s to feed future
astronauts who would be separated from medical care for extended
periods of time. Without medical intervention, an astronaut sickened
by foodborne illness would prove a very large liability and could
possibly result in the failure of entire missions. Food products could
not be recalled or replaced while in space.

Beginning in 1959, the Pillsbury Company embarked on work with

NASA to further develop a process stemming from ideas employed in

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engineering systems development known as Failure Mode & Effect
Analysis (FMEA). Through the thorough analysis of production
processes and identification of microbial hazards that were known to
occur in the production establishment, Pillsbury and NASA identified
the critical points in the process at which these hazards were likely
introduced into product and therefore should be controlled.

The establishment of critical limits of specific mechanical or test

parameters for control at those points, the validation of these
prescribed steps by scientifically verifiable results, and the
development of record keeping by which the processing establishment
and the regulatory authority could monitor how well process control
was working all culminated in what today is known as HACCP. In this
way, an expensive or time consuming testing procedure is not
required to guarantee the safety of each piece of food leaving an
assembly line, but rather the entire process has been seamlessly
integrated as a series of validated steps.

In 1971 the HACCP approach was presented at the first American

National Conference for Food Protection. 1973 saw the US FDA apply
HACCP to Low Acid Canned Foods Regulations, although if you read
those regulations carefully, you will note that they never actually
mention HACCP. From 1988 to the present day, HACCP principles
have been promoted and incorporated into food safety legislation in
many countries around the world.

Beginning in 1996, the United States Department of Agriculture

(USDA) established a detailed Pathogen Reduction / Hazard Analysis
of Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) program under the Food Safety
and Inspection Service (FSIS) to regulate the production of raw meat
products by large scale facilities. There is currently no HACCP
requirement in the US for food processors such as supermarket deli
or butcher departments that purchase from certified producers.

European Regulation & Small Businesses

The European Union introduced new food hygiene regulations on 1-

January-2006 that requires all food businesses within the EU, except
primary producers, to operate food safety management procedures
based on HACCP principles. Significant flexibility has been included
to allow small businesses to comply. HACCP systems are not readily
applicable to food businesses like retail caterers and the flexibility
allows alternatives to HACCP that achieve the same outcome of safe
food being produced. The U.K. Food Standards Agency has produced
an adapted simplified version of HACCP for small caterers and
retailers called 'Safer Food Better Business' (SFBB) that uses this

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flexibility and is an example of how quality systems and HACCP
principles can be creatively adapted for small businesses and different
situations