What is HACCP?
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. Whilst it is a preventative risk management system that was originally created by NASA to ensure that the food taken into outer space is safe to eat it is now the basis of most risk management assessments including Occupational health and safety, Environmental risk management, general risk management and any risk that you choose to define.
HACCP involves seven principles:
- Analyze hazards. Potential hazards and measures to control those hazards are identified. For food the hazard could be biological, such as death, back ache, financial loss, microbial, chemical, physical, or carbon emissions.
- Identify critical control points. These are points in production--from raw materials through processing and shipping to purchase by the consumer--at which the potential hazard can be controlled or eliminated.
- Establish preventive measures with critical limits for each control point. I.e. if a critical limit is reached then the hazard will become reality.
- Establish procedures to monitor the critical control points. These are procedures defining how critical control points are monitored.
- Establish corrective actions to be taken when monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been met--for example, reprocessing or disposing of products if the minimum criteria is not met.
- Establish procedures to verify that the system is working properly --
- Establish effective record keeping to document the HACCP system. This would include records of hazards and their control methods, the monitoring of safety requirements and action taken to correct potential problems. Each of these principles must be backed by sound scientific knowledge