WHAT IS HACCP

HACCP means Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point. It is basically designed to control the food safety hazards at critical points within the food business. To make a HACCP Plan first we have to identify the hazards that must be avoided, reduced or removed.

There are seven basic principles of HACCP:

• ·         Analyze the hazard
• ·         Determine the critical control point
• ·         Establish the critical limits
• ·         Establish the monitoring procedure for Critical Control Point
• ·         Establish the corrective actions
• ·         Establish verification procedure
• ·         Establish documentation system

Analyze the hazard:

There are basically 3 types of hazards biological, physical and chemical hazard. Analyze the hazards and identify any hazardous biological, chemical, or physical property in raw materials and processing steps are involved which can make the final product unsafe for human consumption.

Determine Critical Control Point:

Critical Control point is a step or procedure at which controls can be applied and a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level.

Establish the critical limits:

It is the maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical hazard must be controlled at a critical control point to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level the occurrence of the identified food safety hazard.

Establish the monitoring procedure for Critical Control Point:

Monitoring is very important for a HACCP system. Monitoring is a planned sequence of observations or measurements to assess whether a critical control point is under control and to produce an accurate record for future use in verification.

Establish the corrective actions:

Corrective action is an action taken when the results shows any deviations occurred in the process or in the monitoring system or the critical control point indicate any loss of control.

Establish verification procedure:

Verification is the evaluation process of the methods and procedure, in addition to monitoring, to determine compliance with the HACCP plan.

Establish documentation system:

Maintaining proper HACCP records is an essential part of the HACCP system. Accurate and complete HACCP records are helpful for racing the history of an ingredient, in-process operations, or a finished product, when problem arise.