What is HACCP?
The importance of food safety, whether it be for a local café or a global chain, cannot be overlooked; HACCP is the gold standard. It protects public health, and from a reputational perspective, it builds trust and consumer confidence.
There is a direct correlation between low food hygiene ratings and the success of a food establishment:
- Almost 70% of consumers consider food hygiene ratings before buying
- Ratings of 2 and under will cost businesses a 75% loss of potential customers
- Every star lost results in a 15% drop in sales
Our guide explores how a HACCP plan can support businesses in the food industry with a tailored approach that achieves results.
What does HACCP stand for?
HACCP, meaning Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, is an internationally recognised management system designed to ensure food safety by identifying and controlling potential hazards before they reach the consumer.
Corrective actions primarily target 4 types of hazards:
- Biological: Harmful bacteria (like Salmonella), viruses, or parasites.
- Chemical: Contaminants like cleaning agents, pesticides, or unlabelled allergens.
- Physical: Foreign objects such as glass, metal shards, or plastic.
- Allergenic: Cross-contamination from known allergens like nuts or shellfish.
What are the 7 principles of HACCP?
Consisting of 7 principles, the HACCP process provides a comprehensive framework for food safety management. Here’s an overview:
1. Conduct a hazard analysis
This HACCP step involves identifying potential biological, chemical, and physical hazards at every stage of production.
• Identification: Listing risks such as bacterial growth, cleaning chemical residues, or metal fragments.
• Evaluation: Assessing the likelihood of the hazard occurring and the severity of its consequences to determine which risks are significant enough to require a formal control plan
2. Determine critical control points (CCPs)
A CCP is a specific step where control can be applied to prevent, eliminate, or reduce a food safety hazard to an acceptable level.
Examples of CCPs might be:
- Cooking
- Cooling
- Metal detection
- pH control
CCPs have the capacity to control multiple food safety hazards, whilst conversely, several CCPs might be required to control a single hazard.
3. Establish critical limits
Understanding the critical limits of a CCP involves setting the exact boundaries that must be met to ensure food safety. These limits highlight where a product transitions from safe to unsafe.
Critical limits must be measurable and observable. Examples include:
- Temperatures
- Time durations
- Chemical levels
- Physical parameters
4. Establish monitoring procedures
It’s stipulated by this part of the HACCP process that there should be a way of knowing if the CCPs remain within its critical limits.
Diligence is key here, as it helps detect possible issues before they escalate into bigger problems. This could be done via:
- Routine temperature checks with a calibrated probe
- Frequent acidity (pH) tests for preserved foods
- Visual inspections of packaging or ‘use-by dates’
All monitoring results must be recorded to provide evidence that the food was handled safely.
5. Establish corrective actions
Should a critical limit be breached, this part of a HACCP plan ensures that they’re rectified efficiently. The objective is to make the product safe, mitigate the problem repeating, and to keep records for audit purposes.
Correction action has three levels:
- Immediate action to get control of the process
- Short term action to understand the problem with the product
- Long term action to prevent it recurring
- Establish verification procedures
Without this HACCP principle, it’s difficult to know the system’s efficacy. Verification is achieved through validation and verification procedures:
- Validation: This is the process of collating evidence to demonstrate that the HACCP plan is working—especially the critical control points and critical limits.
- Verification: This is an overview of the all the HACCP steps, ensuring each aspect is working as it should.
7. Maintain documentation
Accurate records for each HACCP step must be kept and show that the controls are working as intended.
What is the importance of HACCP guidelines?
Adhering to food hygiene practices builds trust and galvanises an establishment’s reputation; but more importantly, it’s a legal obligation.
Under the Food Safety Act 1990, the following are offences:
- Producing food that’s dangerous to health
- Producing food that doesn’t meet food safety requirements
- Producing food that is not of the nature, substance, or quality expected by consumers
Within this legislation, it’s stipulated under Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 that:
“Food business operators shall put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure based on the Codex HACCP principles.”
Evidently, HACCP food safety is the optimal standard that those involved in the food industry should strive for.
In addition to satisfying food safety law, implementing a HACCP process helps avoid expensive product recalls, mitigate the chance of contamination, and promotes traceability.
What is the purpose of HACCP in a food business?
Aside from meeting legal requirements, there are several purposes (and benefits) to implementing HACCP steps:
- Prevention instead of reaction: Basic food safety management templates react to hazards; HACCP identifies and controls them before they’re problematic.
- Identifying “critical” moments: HACCP helps grade the severity of hazards, ensuring they’re controlled with stringent CPPs.
- Due diligence: With the 7 principles of HACCP, a paper trail exists, which supports proving every precaution was taken regarding food safety.
How often should a HACCP audit be carried out?
Generally, a HACCP audit should be conducted annually. This may change depending on specific needs, for example, if a business is undergoing internal checks or wanting to obtain external certification.
FAQs: What is HACCP?
Is HACCP compulsory for food establishments?
Every food business, irrespective of size, should have a food safety management system built upon the 7 principles of HACCP.
What are the consequences of non-compliance?
Businesses that don’t have a HACCP plan in place could be subject to fines, their company closing, and even criminal prosecution.
How often should a HACCP system be reviewed?
Reviews should be, at a minimum, carried out yearly. Immediate reviews will be necessary if ingredients, equipment or processes are changed, or if there’s been a food safety incident.
Which records should be kept for the purposes of food inspectors?
Up to date logs of critical control points should be maintained. These should include cleaning schedules, pest control reports, and staff training records.
Who needs HACCP training?
Law mandates that food handlers must be trained to a level relative to their duties. Staff generally need level 2 HACCP training, whilst managers or owners should have a level 3 HACCP training.
Final say: What is HACCP?
HACCP, which stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, is a proactive approach to food safety that ensures legal compliance. There are 7 principles of HACCP that aim to protect public health from food safety hazards.
Food businesses that demonstrate they’re following HACCP steps illustrate they abide by food safety laws and prioritise the Health & Safety of their customer base.
Do you need support implementing a HACCP plan?
Is your business relying on a basic food safety management system template? If so, a food inspector could issue crippling fines.
Peninsula helps you implement a proactive HACCP process, eradicating them before they do potentially irreversible damage to your business.
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Health & Safety expertise. When you partner with us, you get
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