Food Safety System (HACCP)

I. Introduction:
• History:
HACCP is not a new system. The concept was developed in the 1960s by the Pillsbury Company, while working with NASA and the US Army Laboratories to provide safe food for space expeditions. The limitations of end product testing became evident to those who were trying to provide the safest possible food products. In order to ensure that food used for space missions would be safe, almost all the product manufactured would need to be tested, leaving very little for actual use. A new approach was needed. The practical and proactive system of HACCP evolved from these efforts to understand and control food safety failures. HACCP has been widely used by industry since the late 1970s, and is now internationally recognized

Chemicals Physical objects

Thousands of operations around the world use HACCP based food safety programs in various stages of food production. It is a highly respected and effective system.
HACCP is being used from farm to fork since food safety starts at its production, right through the processing, food distribution and retail food service.

II. Principles of HACCP:
A food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP will enable hazards to be identified and controlled before they threaten the safety of food and your customers.
There are 7 principles of HACCP:
1. Identify the hazards
Look at each step (purchasing, delivery, storage, preparation, cooking, chilling etc.) in your operation and identify what can go wrong.
E.g. Salmonella in a cooked chicken product due to cross contamination with raw meat (biological hazard), contamination of uncovered food with detergent (chemical hazard) or a piece of broken glass fallen into an uncovered food (physical hazard).

2. Determine the critical control points (CCPs)
Identify the points in your operation that ensures control of the hazards.
A CCP is a control step to prevent, eliminate or reduce a hazard to an acceptable

When cooking beef burgers, the centre of the burger must reach a minimum temperature of 75°C (or an equivalent time temperature combination e.g. 70°C for 2 minutes) to ensure pathogens are destroyed.

4. Establish a system to monitor control of the CCP.
When CCPs and critical limits have been identified it is important to have a way to monitor and record what is happening at each CCP. Typically monitoring will involve measuring parameters such as temperature and time. However, how you monitor and how often will depend on the size and nature of your business. Monitoring should in all cases be simple, clear and easy to do
E.g. Probe refrigerated food to ensure that it is being maintained below 5°C.

5. Establish the corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a particular CCP is not under control
When monitoring indicates that a CCP is not under control, corrective action must be taken. The corrective action to be taken depends on the potential