Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Point principles
In order to protect consumers
against any contamination of their food, the Hazard Analysis and Critical
Control Point (HACCP) principles were developed. HACCP is an internationally
recognised system for food safety management.
It is the responsibility of all
food business operators to ensure that the food they produce is safe to eat. If
you are an operator, then you must ensure you put in place food safety
management procedures and working practices, and be able to prove that this has
been done.
To produce safe food for
consumers, all the important safety hazards that are associated with the
production of food need to be identified and then prevented, eliminated or
reduced to an acceptable level. These food safety hazards may be biological,
physical or chemical.
The seven HACCP principles
provide a systematic way of identifying food safety hazards, making sure that
they are being managed responsibly and showing that this is being done day-in,
day-out.
This involves the following
steps:
·
plan -
decide what needs to be done to ensure food safety and write it down
·
do -
carry out your plan of action
·
check -
monitor your HACCP activity and record what has been checked and when
·
act -
take action when food safety is at risk and write it down
The seven HACCP principles are:
·
identify
any hazards that must be prevented eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels
·
identify
the critical control points (CCPs) at the step or steps at which control is
essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard or to reduce it to acceptable levels
·
establish
critical limits at CCPs
·
establish
procedures to monitor the CCPs
·
establish
corrective actions to be taken if a CCP is not under control
·
establish
procedures to verify whether the above procedures are working effectively
·
establish
documents and records to demonstrate the effective application of the above
measures
