HACCP
Enforced by such agencies as the US Department of Agriculture's Food
and Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), is a scientific process control system for eliminating contaminants
at critical areas in the food production and distribution process.HACCP
helps to prevent, as close to 100 percent as possible, harmful contamination
in the food supply.
7 HACCP Principles
1.
Analyze hazards. Potential hazards associated
with a food and measures to control those hazards are identified.
The hazard could be biological, such as a microbe; chemical, such
as a toxin; or physical, such as ground glass or metal fragments.
2.
Identify critical control points. These are
points in a food's production from its raw state through processing
and shipping to consumption by the consumer at which the potential
hazard can be controlled or eliminated. Examples are cooking, cooling,
packaging, and metal detection.
3.
Establish preventive measures with critical limits
for each control point. For a cooked food, for example, this might
include setting the minimum cooking temperature and time required
to ensure the elimination of any harmful microbes.
4.
Establish procedures to monitor the critical control
points. Such procedures might include determining how and by whom
cooking time and temperature should be monitored.
5.
Establish corrective actions to be taken when monitoring
shows that a critical limit has not been met--for example, reprocessing
or disposing of food if the minimum cooking temperature is not met.
6.
Establish procedures to verify that the system is
working properly for example, testing time-and-temperature recording
devices to verify that a cooking unit is working properly.
7.
Establish effective record keeping to document the
HACCP system. This would include records of hazards and their
control methods, the monitoring of safety requirements and action
taken to correct potential problems. Each of these principles must
be backed by sound scientific knowledge: for example, published microbiological
studies on time and temperature factors for controlling foodborne
pathogens.
New
challenges to the U.S. food supply have prompted FDA to consider adopting
a HACCP-based food safety system on a wider basis. One of the most
important challenges is the increasing number of new food pathogens.
For example, between 1973 and 1988, bacteria not previously recognized
as important causes of food-borne illness--such as Escherichia coli
O157:H7 and Salmonella enteritidis--became more widespread.
There also is increasing public health concern about chemical contamination
of food: for example, the effects of lead in food on the nervous system.
Another important factor is that the size of the food industry and
the diversity of products and processes have grown tremendously--in
the amount of domestic food manufactured and the number and kinds
of foods imported. At the same time, FDA and state and local agencies
have the same limited level of resources to ensure food safety.
The need for HACCP in the United States, particularly in the seafood
industry, is further fueled by the growing trend in international
trade for worldwide equivalence of food products and the Codex Alimentarious
Commission's adoption of HACCP as the international standard for food
safety.
ADVANTAGES
HACCP offers a number of advantages over the current system. Most
importantly, HACCP:focuses on identifying and preventing hazards from
contaminating food is based on sound science permits more efficient
and effective government oversight, primarily because the recordkeeping
allows investigators to see how well a firm is complying with food
safety laws over a period rather than how well it is doing on any
given day places responsibility for ensuring food safety appropriately
on the food manufacturer or distributor helps food companies compete
more effectively in the world market reduces barriers to international
trade.
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