32 HACCP in Production
Suganthi V
- DEFINITION
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) is an internationally recognized pro active system that aims to prevent, control and eliminate biological, physical or chemical hazards which may pose a danger to the health of consumers.
2. OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter you will be able to:
- Understand the principles of HACCP
- Know about the significance of HACCP and its role in providing safe food to thecustomers.
3. INTRODUCTION
The objective of a food sanitation program is to protect food against contaminating substances and to minimize the effects of any contamination that does occur. The HACCP system developed in the 1960’sto ensure the safety of food prepared for the astronauts, is set up to maximize food safety. The system combines three elements- principles of food microbiology, quality control and risk assessment- and emphasizes a movement away from the inspection of facilities to one that centers on the process of preparing and serving safe food.
HACCP involves identifying the foods and the procedures most likely to cause food borne illness and putting effective procedures in place to control and monitor those hazards. This means looking at the operations step by step, from the selection of menu items and ingredients through to the service or sale of food to the customer.
4. ORIGIN OF HACCP
HACCP was originally developed by NASA and Pilsbury company to prevent astronauts getting food poisoning on the first manual flights to space. Their goal was to produce 100 percent safe food. Pilsbury investigated ways of protecting the food from biological, chemical or physical hazards. They found that the only way they could achieve this was to have control over the raw materials used, the processes, the physical environment and the people. The system they developed to ensure control became known as HACCP.
HACCP is now widely adopted throughout the world as the basis for food safety laws. HACCP is used as a valuable risk management tool for food safety in many industry sectors, including food service, manufacturing, packaging, retail, meat production, dairy and agriculture. Together with good hygiene practices, HACCPO forms an integral part of an effective food safety program.
5. TYPES OF HAZARDS IN FOOD SERVICE INSTITUTIONS
1. Microbiological hazards
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2. Biological hazards
- Worms
- Fly
- Cockroach, eggs and body parts
- Beetles and weaves
- Rat droppings
- Caterpillars
3. Chemical hazards
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4. Physical hazards
- Items that are hard and may cause dental damage
- Items that are sharp and may cause injury
- Nails, nuts and bolts
- Matchstick
- Hair
- Bones, fragments and feathers
- Stems and seeds
- Stones and grit
6. PREVENTATIVE MEASURES TO CONTROL IDENTIFIED HAZARDS
Preventative measures used to control identified hazards are:
- A step in the process-sieving, cooking
- Use of approved suppliers
- Controlled storage
- Time management
- Segregation
- Application of effective cleaning schedules e.g., sorting and washing with chlorine before storage
- Effective pest control
7. BENEFITS OF HACCP BASED FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM
- HACCP is the most effective way of ensuring food safety.
- HACCP offers a simple, systematic approach to identifying and controlling hazards at all stages of the process, from purchase of ingredients through to sale or service.
- Rather than relying on end product testing, HACCP prevents a food safety problem from occurring in the first place.
- HACCP will mean that a business can have confidence in its food products and customers can feel secured about food safety standards.
- Through identifying and controlling hazards that can affect food safety and by improving food processing systems, the overall quality of food products is enhanced.
- The implementation of HACCP can support a “Due Diligence” defense for the business if food safety problems do occur (i.e., a legal defense that shows a business has taken all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the occurrence of a food borne incident).
- SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF HACCP
The seven HACCP principles are:
- Principle 1 Conduct a hazard analysis.
- Principle 2 Determine the Critical Control Points (CCP’s).
- Principle 3 Establish critical limit(s).
- Principle 4 Establish a system to monitor control of CCP.
- Principle 5 Establish corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a particular CCP is not under control.
- Principle 5 Establish procedures for verification to confirm that the HACCP system is working effectively.
- Principle 7 Establish documentation concerning all procedures and records appropriate to these principles and their application.
8.1.Principle 1 Conduct a hazard analysis.
List all potential hazards associated with each step, conduct a hazard analysis, and consider any measures to control identified hazards. Firstly, the HACCP team must decide whether any of the process steps associated with the product(s) are potential sites for biological, chemical or physical contamination. There will be many issues that will need to be considered during the hazard analysis stage. The team will need to ask:
- Will any “at risk” population groups purchase or consume the food(s) (for example, children, aged, etc)?
- What are the key parameters for the food(s) (for example, ingredients, processing, packaging, storage and distribution methods, etc)?
- Will the food(s) be taken off the premises to be consumed by the customer and if so how will it be treated and/or consumed (for example re-heating, cooking, handling, etc)
- Is biological contamination likely to occur at this process step? For example:
- Is the product potentially high risk or hazardous food?
- Does the process step provide the right conditions for bacteria to survive and multiply (for example, time, temperature, acidity, food and the right water activity)?
- Could the hazard cause a food borne illness?
- Is chemical contamination likely to occur at this process step (for example, cleaning and sanitizing chemicals, food additives, etc)?
- Is physical contamination likely to occur at this process step (for example, bones, glass, wood, metal, hair, stones, etc)?
- What is the likelihood that the hazard will occur and what is the severity if it does occur?
- Are there any hazards that may be present in the raw ingredients (e.g., raw shellfish) or introduced during the process (contamination from equipment, environment or personnel)?
- What events could realistically occur that may not be covered by the flow chart (e.g., delays, equipment breakdown, temporary delays, etc)?
The HACCP team must then ensure that there are preventative measures to control all of the identified hazards. The purpose of preventative measures are to eliminate or hazards or reduce their impact or occurrence to acceptable levels. This will involve the implementation of standard procedures for good hygiene practices in the areas of premises, equipment, cleaning, pest control, personal hygiene, transport, receiving and storage and the production process.
8.2.Principle 2 Determine the Critical Control Points (CCP’s).
The HACCP team needs to assess which process steps and procedures for thr product(s) are critical to the safety of the product. A Critical Control Point (CCP) is defined as a step at which control can actually be applied and is essential to prevent, eliminate or reduce a hazard to an acceptable level. A typical food item or recipe will have atleast one or more CCP’s.
To identify whether a process step is a Critical Control Point, The HACCP team will need to ask: If I loose control at this step, will a food safety hazard occur which a further step will not be able to eliminate or reduce to an acceptable level? Examples of critical points in a food service environment include:
- Cooking
- Cooling
- Re-heating
- Hot and cold holding
- Mixing
- Cleaning and sanitizing procedures
- Prevention of cross contamination
8.3.Principle 3 Establish critical limit(s) for each CCP
Having identified the CCPs for the product(s) the HACCP team now needs to set the Critical Limits. The Critical Limits are the specific standards within the preventative measure that must be met to ensure that the hazard is controlled, eliminated or reduced. Critical Limits must be measurable (e.g., temperature, time), specific (e.g., exact range of temperature and time), realistic and practical. Examples of typical Critical Limits in the food service environment will include standards such as:
- time
- temperature
- physical dimensions(i.e., percent fat content, thickness/weight of the food item)
- pH
- water activity
8.4.Principle 4 Establish a system to monitor control of CCP
Establishing CCPs in the operation and setting specific criteria for their control is of little value unless they are monitored. When establishing monitoring procedures for Critical Limits, the HACCP team needs to specify:
- What method of monitoring is used (e.g., visual check, temperature recording, etc)?
- Who is responsible for monitoring the critical limits?
- When should the monitoring take place (e.g, each batch, once every two hours, etc)?
- Whether the monitoring needs to be recorded and if so, where?
Monitoring serves several useful purposes:
- It ensures that the Critical Limits for CCPs are being met.
- It triggers corrective action when the Critical Limit has not been met.
- It shows how effective the HACCP plan is.
- It collects data that can be used to modify process steps and working procedures where necessary.
- It can provide written documentation for use in verifying the HACCP plan.
8.5.Principle 5 Establish corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a particular CCP is not under control
The HACCP team needs to establish what immediate corrective action procedures must be followed when monitoring procedure to show that a Critical Limit has not been met. Corrective Action Procedures should be documented and later reviewed.
8.6.Principle 6 Establish procedures for verification to confirm that the HACCP system is working effectively
To make sure that the HACCP program is working correctly, verification and auditing procedures need to be developed and scheduled. Verification should be viewed as an “HACCP health check”. The HACCP program and the HACCP plans will need to be reviewed and altered if there are any changes such as legislation, types of customers, menu items and ingredientscustomer complaints, suppliers, premises, equipment, production methods, etc. examples of typical verification activities include:
- Annual review of the HACCP plan and flow charts.
- Review of CCP record.
- Review of deviation from critical limits and any corrective actions taken,
- Visual inspections of operations and procedures.
- Review and validation of critical limits to ensure they are adequate to control the hazards.
- Audits of records and procedures.
- Random microbiological testing of products.
8.7.Principle 7 Establish documentation concerning all procedures and records appropriate to these principles and their application
Efficient and record keeping is essential to the application of a HACCP program. The HACCP plans and any associated records will need to be kept on file, easily accessible and kept up-to-date. The complexity of the record keeping system will be dependent on on the complexity of the food preparation operation. For example, a cook-chill operation in a five star hotel will require a more sophisticated record keeping than a small cook-serve operation in a cafeteria. Typical records in a food service environment include the following:
- listing of the HACCP team and their responsibilities
- description of the products and their intended use
- flow chart
- HACCP plan
- a list of monitoring forms that are used in the HACCP program to monitor that the critical limits are being met
- HACCP team meeting records
- documented preventive measures (i.e., standard procedures, policies records)
- records of internal and external audits
- any documentation relating to customer complaints and product recalls.
9. SOME EXAMPLES OF RECORDS TO BE DOCUMENTED BY DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS
- Purchase
- Supplier audit report
- Supplier evaluation report
- Receiving/stores
- Received food temperature record
- Supplier vehicle temperature record
- Storage time records for limited shelf life ingredients
- Processing/kitchen
- Records from all monitored CCPs like food temperature report
- Records verifying the continued adequacy of food processing procedures
- Housekeeping
o Pest control records
- Personnel/HR
o Staff member training records of staff responsible for the implementation of HACCP plan
- Engineering
- Equipment history record
- Water chlorination record
10. APPLYING HACCP
A food safety program based on the principles of HACCP will consist of a set of HACCP or food safety plans which are followed in day-to-day operations and which are supported by standard procedures for good hygiene practice. For HACCP plans to be effective, the unique features of a business must be taken into account. This is because while the process steps in preparing is often the same; every food service business is different. There will be different food safety hazards caused by factors such as:
- different menus
- the working space available
- the type and condition of equipment used
- the selection and supply of ingredients used
- the processes used for the preparation, production and service of foods and
- the standard of good hygiene practices employed in the operation.
Generally, the application of the HACCP principles consists of a series of established steps as described below:
Step 1 Assemble a HACCP team The business must choose a team based on their experience and understanding of the processes and food items under review. It is important to ensure that a sufficient number of people with a cross section of skills and knowledge are included in the team. It is essential that the HACCP team is trained in the principles and application of HACCP and clearly understand their role. They will also need to meet regularly. A typical HACCP team may consist of the Executive chef, Restaurant manager, Sous chef and kitchen assistants.
Step 2 Develop a HACCP implementation plan Before the HACCP team begins to apply the principles of HACCP, they need to decide which food items will be included in the HACCP plans. HACCP can either be applied to every part of the operation in one go, or it can be phased in gradually over time. For example, HACCP plans may be written for every product produced or handled based on food groups or HACCP plans may be written for a particular group of food items first. Either way, priority must be given to high risk food items or recipes.
For each HACCP plan. the HACCP team will need to identify what the scope will be, i.e., which process steps will be included in the HACCP plan and which hazards will be included in the HACCP plan (e.g., biological, chemical and/or physical hazards).For example, the HACCP team the HACCP team may decide to review hot meat dished prepared in-house through all stages of the production process, from recipe formulation through to hot holding and service to customers, focusing on biological hazards only.
Step 3 Construct a flow chart The HACCP team draw up a flow chart which summarizes the exact process steps that the food item(s) undergoes, from the time of purchase through to the time of sale or service. To do this, the team will need to develop a flow chart based in their experience and knowledge and then observe the steps at the various steps of operations. This ensures that the flow chart accurately reflects what happens all times during the operation, including during peak production periods, night shifts and weekend shifts.
11. PUTTING THE HACCP PLAN INTO ACTION
Once the HACCP team has developed the HACCP plans, they will need to be implemented into the operation. As with any other system, developing the food safety program is just the beginning. To ensure that the food safety program is successful, the standards and systems set up must become a part of everyday life. They should be regarded as an integral part of business and not just as an add-on that meets legislative requirements or customer demands. The only way to achieve this is to ensure:
- management commitment
- a thoroughly trained and motivated team
- staff ownership.
12. COMMUNICATING THE FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM
All staff needs to understand the purpose of the food safety program, what it involves and most importantly what their role is in making it happen. After all, any staff member who lacks commitment to food safety could threaten the entire food safety program as well as the viability and the reputation of the business.
While most staff will not be active
ly involved in the development of HACCP plans, they still need to be able to understand the parts of the plans that apply to their day-to-day activities. This can be achieved through using practical strategies such as:
- leading by example
- regularly communicating with staff
- on and off the job training sessions
- presenting the information in a way that is easy and simple to follow. For example: placing wall charts in the kitchen which summarise all process steps and how to control hazards at each step, from receiving through to sales or service.
- USE OF HACCP IN CATERING
The most important to be considered are:
- Handling and storage procedures from delivery to service of the menu items
- Holding time and temperature
- Cooling times
- Personnel training.
- BENEFITS OF HACCP
- Enhances food safety and reduces risk of food borne diseases.
- Provide greater confidence to customers.
- Reduction in production cost through reduced wastage.
- Facilities compliance with statutory requirements.
- Current or potential hazards can be identified and removed or minimized. 15. SUMMARY
Food safety programs based on the principles of HACCP do not need to be complex to be effective. The primary aim of HACCP is to reduce the number of food borne incidents consistently provide safe and suitable food and thus protect consumer’s health. Understanding the emerging risk inherent in the preparation and handling of food and embracing the principles of HACCP will ultimately help the customers and the business.
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Web links
- www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/HACCP
- www.22000-tools.com/What-is-haccp.html
- www.bsigroup.com/HACCP-Food Safety-Risks
- www.haccpindia.org
- www.foodsafety.url.edu/haccp/start/gettingstarted.html
- www.haccpalliance.org
- www.tuv_nord.com/in/food safety/haccp.htm
Books
- Food and Safety and preservation, Madhulika Parmar, Black Prints, 2014
- Food hygiene and Sanitation, Suretra Rodey, Tata McGraw Hill, 2011
- Catering Management-An integrated approach, Mohine Sethi & Surjeet Malhan, New Age International Publishers, 2011
- Sethi, Institutional Management: New Age International publishers, 2004
- West & Wood, Food Service in Institutions, Wiley Eastern Limited, 2000
- Cookery for the Hospitality Industry, 5th edition, Graham Dodshun & Michel Peters, Adapted by Sireesh Saxena, Cambridge Unuiversity Press, 2008