HACCP

Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points

A Quality Management System that is designed to prevent the occurrence of problems that threaten food safety. As a preventive approach it relies on an organization involved in the processing of food, to identify potential hazards and the measures needed for their control.

Hazards in a food safety context can include:

� Biological hazards such as bacteria, parasites and viruses and the toxins produced by bacteria

� Physical hazards such as stones, glass, metal fragments and packaging materials

� Chemical hazards such as cleaning compounds and insecticides

The HACCP system is defined by seven principles:

� Identify hazards and determine their severity and risk.

� Determine the Critical Control Points that are required to control the identified hazards.

� Establish the critical limit or limits for those Critical Control Points.

� Establish a system to monitor the Critical Control Points.

� Establish the corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a particular Critical Control Point is not under control.

� Establish procedures for verification to confirm that the HACCP system is working effectively.

� Establish documentation concerning all procedures and records appropriate to these principles and their application.

This is only an overview/extract of the standard. Users should not rely on its accuracy, but should refer to the complete standard of the appropriate revision.