'H' Is For HACCP and GHP, And Their Application In The Food & Drink Industry

Food safety is of primary concern to the food industry and the appropriate organisation and documentation of this is key to regulatory and enforcement, due diligence and insurance requirements.

Each food business operator is responsible for food safety of every food imported, produced, processed or placed on the market at his level. The acronym HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) denotes an internationally recognised method of managing food safety and protecting consumers. It is a requirement of EU food hygiene legislation that applies to all food business operators except farmers and growers.

All food businesses should regularly review their checks and measures to ensure compliance with this and other regulatory requirements, such as traceability, as part of their due diligence and crisis management processes.

A brief overview of the requirements of HACCP and Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) is set out below:

Hygiene and HACCP

The main legal act relevant to food hygiene is EU Regulation 852/2004, Article 5 of which requires food business operators to implement and maintain hygiene procedures based on 7 key HACCP principles:

identify any hazards that must be prevented eliminated or reduced identify the critical control points (CCPs) at the steps at which control is essential establish critical limits at CCPs establish procedures to monitor the CCPs establish corrective actions to be taken if a CCP is not under control establish procedures to verify whether the above procedures are working effectively establish documents and records to demonstrate the effective application of the above measures The HACCP approach provides a systematic way of identifying food safety hazards and making sure that they are being controlled on a day-to-day basis. This involves the following four steps: Plan, Do, Check, Act.

Hazards

The seven principles aim to focus attention on the identification and control of microbiological, as well as chemical and physical food safety hazards during production. The hazard assessment and the regular monitoring of critical control measures must be documented to provide the basis for audit checks and may provide evidence of due diligence in the event of legal action.

Conscientious implementation of HACCP principles by plant operators demonstrates their commitment to food safety; improves employee awareness of their role in protecting consumers, and emphasises management's responsibility for safe production.

Controls

...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT