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Course Sample:
1. Introduction
The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system was initially used in 1971 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to ensure that astronauts consumed microbiologically safe foods that were also convenient, wholesome, and appetizing. Since contraction of foodborne illness by astronauts could have compromised the entire U.S. space program, HACCP was designed to eliminate such errors that could lead to foodborne illness. These standards were first developed with clean room standards as a model. Thus, these foods were also routinely microbiologically tested. (1)
The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) is the main foodborne disease tracking unit in The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?s (CDC's) Emerging Infections Program (EIP). In 2005, FoodNet identified a total of 16,614 laboratory-confirmed cases of foodborne infections in the United States. There were 6,471 cases of Salmonella, 5,655 cases of Campylobacter, 2,078 cases of Shigella, 1,313 cases of Cryptosporidium, 473 cases of STEC O157, 159 cases of Yersinia, 146 cases of STEC non-O157, and 135 cases of Listeria, 119 cases of Vibrio, and 65 cases of Cyclospora. The overall incidence per 100,000 populations was 14.55 for Salmonella, 12.72 for Campylobacter, 4.67 for Shigella, 2.95 for Cryptosporidium, 1.06 for STEC O157, 0.36 for Yersinia, 0.33 for STEC non-O157, 0.30 for Listeria, 0.27 for Vibrio, and 0.15 for Cyclospora. This data highlights the need for proper implementation of HACCP in food handling facilities. (2)
The Federal Food Code contains guidelines for HACCP implementation. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaboratively publish the Federal Food Code. The goal of the Food Code is to protect the public health and provide the consumer with safe, unadulterated food. Many areas covered under the Food Code include management and personnel, employee hygiene including the need for covering open infected cuts and proper hand washing, wiping cloth use, food handling including minimum cooking temperatures, use of gloves, proper use of equipment, utensils, and linens, water, plumbing, and waste, guidelines for physical facilities, dealing with poisonous or toxic materials, and a section about compliance and enforcement. The Food Code is typically enforced by local and state agencies that monitor retail and commercial food safety. It is revised every two years and is one step that the U.S. government is taking to monitor and prevent foodborne illness. The Food Code specifies that HACCP plans should be implemented and kept on file in the foodservice establishment. The Food Code is readily available on the internet and is a valuable resource for foodservice managers. It can be reviewed online at http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Edms/foodcode.html (3).
HACCP regulations for the seafood industry were enacted on December 18, 1995 and for the juice industry on January 19, 2001. These regulations took effect between January 2002 and January 2004. In 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also made HACCP a requirement for meat and poultry processing plants. Large facilities had to implement HACCP by January 1999 although very small locations had until January 25, 2000. Although HACCP is still considered to be voluntary at the retail level per the Food Code, it is strongly recommended and will help your facility to meet regulations and improve food safety. (4)
Managers as well as employees need to be trained on how to apply HACCP in the facilities in which they work. All employees, including the chef, the dishwasher, the waitress, and the janitor, play a vital role in ensuring food safety for your customers.
2. Seven Main Principles of HACCP
HACCP involves seven principles, as summarized below:
- Hazard analysis-what can go wrong?
- Determine the critical control points (CCPs)
- Establish critical limits
- Establish a system to monitor CCPs
- Decide upon a corrective action
- Verify that HACCP is working properly
- Document and demonstrate it works
2a. Hazard Analysis
First, analyze any potential hazards associated with a food and identify possible ways of eliminating or limiting those hazards. Hazards are typically biological, chemical, or physical in nature. Some examples of biological hazards include contamination by Salmonella, E. coli, and mold. Some examples of chemical hazards include bleach contamination in the soft drink machine, dangerous concentrations of herbicides, antibiotics, metals, hormones, and poisons. Needed chemicals should always be stored in a separate area and be properly labeled. Material safety data sheets (MSDS) for each chemical used should be available in a folder or binder accessible to all employees in case of a spill. Some examples of physical contamination include glass chips in the ice machine and falling paint chips. Examples of factors which contribute to food hazards include improper cooling, prolonged holding, poor hygiene, improper reheating, low holding temperatures, contaminated uncooked items or ingredients, foods used from unapproved sources, inadequate cleaning using a malfunctioning dishwasher or wiping rags with inadequate sanitizer concentrations, use of soiled equipment or utensils, cross-contamination, and inadequate cooking. Other considerations for determining a food hazard include the food item?s water content and pH, actions taken at each step of the recipe, amount of food prepared, and the demographics of your customer base. Those who are at the greatest risk for foodborne illness include the young, old, chronically ill, customers with suppressed immune systems, and those who may be pregnant. Remember that larger quantities of foods need more time for heating, cooling, and reheating and should not be kept in the danger zone (40F-140F) for extended periods of time.
A potentially hazardous food (PHF) tends to support rapid bacterial growth. All PHF should be prepared according to HACCP guidelines. Therefore, it is especially important that safety guidelines for handling and storing these items must be carefully adhered to. PHFs include foods that contain protein such as milk, dairy products, shell eggs, pasteurized eggs, meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, tofu and soy-protein products. In addition, PHFs also include cooked potatoes, cooked or partly cooked plant foods, cut melons, and raw sprouts. Only PHF foods that are supposed to contain microorganisms such as yogurt, blue cheese, and tempeh should have microbiological or mold counts.
It is essential that a foodservice manager should be careful when deciding upon a new supplier. Visit the warehouses and check the transportation systems of possible suppliers before deciding on one. For example, it is important to know if your supplier?s refrigerated trucks are keeping foods at 41˚F or below. Good suppliers will be able to deliver foods at the desired temperatures, have clean refrigerated trucks, be aware of food safety, use packaging that protects the food, allow you to inspect the food deliveries, and be able to deliver when you or your employees are available to handle the delivery. (5)
Safety, sanitation, and maintenance are all essential. Managers should check receiving and storage areas after deliveries are received to ensure that items were put away properly and timely. Foods should be stored at least six inches off the floor; cold foods should be stored at
41˚ F or below, and dented cans or open dry storage item boxes should not be accepted. These storage areas also need to be cleaned daily to help prevent nests of vermin, such as rodents or cockroaches.
2b. Critical Control Points
The second step is to identify the critical control points (CCPs). A CCP is any food handling step in which there is a potential hazard that may lead to food contamination. A step during food preparation is considered to be a CCP if an action taken during the step could prevent or reduce a potential hazard, would eliminate or reduce a potential hazard to an acceptable level, if the step can be measured or observed, and if action can be taken if the standards are not met.
Some CCPs include cooking, holding hot foods, chilling foods, storing chilled foods, and packaging foods. Also included as CCPs are sanitizing cutting boards between products, preventing cross contamination (i.e. raw meat juice dripping on cooked roast beef), personal hygiene including proper hand washing, receiving deliveries, thawing, mixing together of ingredients, changing pH, and ensuring that approved vendors are used that treat the food properly before it gets to your facility.
CCPs can occur at any time during the production of food or at any time in the recipe, from being processed and shipped to being consumed by customers. These range from the time when the producer or grower handles the raw item to the time it is eaten by customers. At each step during the workflow of food production, there is a risk or chance that the hazard of unacceptable contamination can occur. Critical control points may affect quality or safety of food during procurement, processing, and/or delivery of the finished food products. These need to be identified and monitored with test measures. The CCP steps have to be identified separately for each menu item and each corresponding recipe. (5)
Suppliers, the sources of our food items, play a major role in food safety. Foods must be obtained through approved, reputable suppliers who also follow adequate safety standards including HACCP implementation. For this purpose, the U.S. Congress approved the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 on June 12, 2002, which amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. (Public Law 107-188). This act was enacted in response to the attacks on September 11, 2001 and emphasized the need to further protect our food supply. "TITLE III--Protecting Safety and Security of Food and Drug Supply" of this act focuses on making sure that the food supply is safe and secure. The FDA can test for potential food adulteration due to biological, chemical, or radiological agents more rapidly under this act. Under this act, priority will be given to inspections for possible food adulteration and if imported food is received from a "debarred" supplier, it will not be allowed to arrive at its destination. Accordingly, many foreign suppliers are now seeking and obtaining US FDA HACCP certification. (6)
The Secretary of Health and Human Services now requires that any facility that manufactures, processes, packs, or holds food for consumption in the United States must be registered with the Secretary. In addition, an imported food from a source not registered with the Secretary may be held at the port, and not be allowed to enter the United States. The Secretary can review written and electronic records mainly kept by suppliers relating to the manufacture, processing, packing, distribution, receipt, holding, or importation of these items at any location, excluding farms and restaurants, and this documentation must be held for at least two years at the supplier?s facility. Although the act is largely aimed at foreign food manufacturers and not to U.S. restaurants, it is highly recommended for U.S. receivers to hold onto HACCP related documentation items from foreign suppliers such as temperature logs and shellfish tags for two years. (6)
2c. Establish Critical Limits
Third, set up preventive measures with critical limits for each control point. A critical limit can be the highest or lowest value to which a biological, chemical or physical condition that can lead to a potential hazard must be controlled to prevent, eliminate or reduce to an acceptable level the possibility of a food safety hazard. Critical limits must be scientifically based and include temperature, time, physical dimensions, humidity, moisture level, water content, pH/acidity, salt concentration, chlorine concentration, viscosity, preservative content, or sensory information including aroma and appearance. Measures with critical limits determine the difference between safe and unsafe operating conditions at a CCP to prevent contamination and foodborne illness at each control point. For example, set minimum cooking temperatures and times needed to eliminate the growth of harmful microorganisms. These should include temperature and time requirements. (5)
An example of a critical limit is that the chlorine concentration for the automatic dishwasher should fall between 50 to 100 PPM. This is the concentration that is able to properly sanitize dishes and silverware. Another example is that chicken needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 165ºF.
2d. Monitor CCPs
Fourth, be sure to establish procedures for monitoring the critical control points. For example, it is important to monitor temperatures at critical control points. Monitoring allows us to keep accurate records for verification, for tracking of the process, allows a manager to see when a deviation from a critical limit occurs so the appropriate corrective action could be taken, and can allow a manager to bring the process back under control before such deviation occurs. Monitoring procedures are needed to focus on the areas that may be the most problematic. Documentation including temperature logs, laboratory tests for bacteria, moisture level, pH of certain items, and dishwasher sanitizer concentration should be kept. Temperature recording charts are beneficial and measuring equipment should be routinely calibrated for accuracy. HACCP requires good record keeping measures. These include monitoring cooking and holding temperatures. Temperature must be correctly monitored and recorded. Also, shallow containers should be used for hot foods, since these take a shorter time to cool in shallower containers. The documents used for CCP monitoring should be dated and signed or initialed by the employee doing the monitoring. (5)
2e. Decide upon a corrective action
Fifth, specify and plan ahead what corrective actions will be taken when routine monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been met; for example plan that, food may be cooked further or discarded if temperature logs show it is undercooked. For instance, if a food item was in the steam table for one hour and dropped below 140ºF, it can be reheated. However, if it was in for four hours, it should be discarded. Procedures should be in place to verify that HACCP is working as planned in your facility. These include customary use of temperature logs. Keep all HACCP records, including your HACCP plans, monitoring forms including temperature logs, any corrective actions taken, and any verification activities on file in your facility. Time required to keep the records for varies by county. (4)
Corrective action plans should indicate and correct the reason for non-compliance, state what will happen to the product that does not meet the standards, and keep track of any corrective actions that have been taken. Detailed corrective actions should be planned in advance for each CCP and be included in the facility?s HACCP plan. The HACCP plan needs to include what will be done when a deviation occurs and who is responsible for putting the corrective actions into action. A record must be created, maintained, and kept on file at the facility listing the actions taken. For example, the record should list the date the violation was noted, the date that repair was ordered for the equipment or that the first remedial action was taken, and the date and time of the actual repair or problem resolution. Managers or lead employees with a clear understanding of the production process, product and HACCP plan should oversee corrective actions. If needed, experts may be consulted. (5)
2f. Verify
Sixth, set up procedures to verify that the system is working properly including measuring times and temperatures. Managers, chefs, and cooks should always routinely use thermometers. Pocket thermometers, thermometers in the refrigerators, freezers, dry storage areas, hot holding temperature thermometers, and meat thermometers need to be in place. Times and temperatures should be recorded at several time points throughout the day by the manager, chef, or other trained employee.
Verify and validate the HACCP plan to establish that it is scientifically and technically sound, that all potential hazards have been identified, and that if the plan is properly implemented these will be controlled. Information used may include expert advice and scientific studies, observations, measurements, and evaluations. For example, validation of the cooking process for turkey burgers needs to include the scientific justification of the heating times and temperatures needed to destroy pathogenic bacteria and research studies to confirm that the cooking conditions will provide the needed amounts of time and temperature to each turkey burger. (5)
2g. Document and Demonstrate
Seventh, document that the HACCP program in use is working properly using effective recordkeeping. For example, include records of hazards and their control methods, monitoring of safety requirements, and action taken to correct potential problems.
A HACCP flow chart should be used for each multi-step process that involves food production. This will help to keep track of the most hazardous parts of the procedure and the controls in place that could help prevent the hazards. A blank sample form is included in addition to a form filled out using fried fish as an example. (See Appendices A and B.)
Records maintained should include the following:
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