HACCP

Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points

HACCP is 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, viruses, and the toxins produced by bacteria;
• Physical hazards such as stones, glass, metal fragments and packaging materials; and
• 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; and
• 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.

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