HACCP Definition

Hazard Analysis Control Critical Point (HACCP)is a systematic preventive approach to food
safety and pharmaceutical safety that identifies physical, allergenic, chemical, and biological
hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe, and
designs measurements to reduce these risks to a safe level.
The History of HACCP
Late 1950s & early 1960s The development and initial use of an HACCP approach for food
safety.
The developers are U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Administration
(NASA), the U.S. military, and the Pillsbury Company.
The objective of this collaboration was to develope a strategy that would
ensure that foods required for the space program were free of
any unaccpetable health risk.
Early 1970s
The Pillsbury Company announced the use of the HACCP system for
consumer foods and subsequently played a leading role in
providing expertise, information and training to the food industry
and to government regulatory agencies in the U.S.
1973
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first formally used the HACCP
approach for the government regulation of low acid canned food.
1985
The recognition of the HACCP approach by the National Academy of
Sciences as a preventive approach for ensuring the
microbiological safety of foods, generated considerable renewed
interest in the use of the HACCP system.
1987
The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for
Foods (ICMSF) of the World Health Organization (WHO)
endorsed the use of the HACCP approach.
Late 1980s

HACCP had received broad-based endorsement and acceptance

by the food industry, by government regulatory agencies in
many parts of the world, and by the scientific community in
general.
Early 1990s
In the U.S. and Canada, the seafood sector was the first to come under
voluntary HACCP-based inspection programs.
1995
HACCP-based inspection programs have been developed in the U.S. for
the seafood sector.
1996
HACCP-based inspection programs have been developed in the U.S. for
the meat and poultry sector.
2001
HACCP-based inspection programs have been developed in the U.S. for
the juice sector.
1991
More extensive international recognition of HACCP emerged in 1991
when the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene prepared a draft
report on HACCP for Codex Alimentarius member countries.
1997
the edition of NACMCFs publication Hazard Analysis and Critical
Control Point Principles and Application Guidelines is used
extensively as a primary reference document on HACCP.
The HACCP seven principles

Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis. Plans determine the food safety hazards
and identify the preventive measures the plan can apply to control these hazards. A
food safety hazard is any biological, chemical, or physical property that may cause a
food to be unsafe for human consumption.

Principle 2: Identify critical control points. A critical control point (CCP) is a

point, step, or procedure in a food manufacturing process at which control can be
applied and, as a result, a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced
to an acceptable level.
Principle 3: Establish critical limits for each critical control point. A critical
limit 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.
Principle 4: Establish critical control point monitoring requirements.
Monitoring activities are necessary to ensure that the process is under control at each
critical control point. In the United States, the FSIS is requiring that each monitoring
procedure and its frequency be listed in the HACCP plan.
Principle 5: Establish corrective actions. These are actions to be taken when
monitoring indicates a deviation from an established critical limit. The final rule
requires a plant's HACCP plan to identify the corrective actions to be taken if a
critical limit is not met. Corrective actions are intended to ensure that no product
injurious to health or otherwise adulterated as a result of the deviation enters
commerce.
Principle 6: Establish procedures for ensuring the HACCP system is working as
intended. Validation ensures that the plants do what they were designed to do; that
is, they are successful in ensuring the production of a safe product. Plants will be
required to validate their own HACCP plans. FSIS will not approve HACCP plans in
advance, but will review them for conformance with the final rule.
Verification ensures the HACCP plan is adequate, that is, working as intended.
Verification procedures may include such activities as review of HACCP plans, CCP
records, critical limits and microbial sampling and analysis. FSIS is requiring that the
HACCP plan include verification tasks to be performed by plant personnel.
Verification tasks would also be performed by FSIS inspectors. Both FSIS and
industry will undertake microbial testing as one of several verification activities.
Verification also includes 'validation' the process of finding evidence for the
accuracy of the HACCP system (e.g. scientific evidence for critical limitations).
Principle 7: Establish record keeping procedures. The HACCP regulation
requires that all plants maintain certain documents, including its hazard analysis and
written HACCP plan, and records documenting the monitoring of critical control
points, critical limits, verification activities, and the handling of processing deviations.