HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is used throughout the food production industry as a systematic preventative approach to food safety management.

With Issue 9 of the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard listing HACCP as one of its fundamental requirements, sites are under pressure to demonstrate continuous improvement in this area.

With this in mind, we have put together a guide that will take you through each of the 7 HACCP Principles. The following article is packed full of valuable information that will help your HACCP Team to secure compliance and drive standards of food safety across your site.

What are the 7 HACCP Principles?

1. Conduct a Hazard Analysis

This is by far the longest and most complex part of the HACCP process. It can be divided into eight steps, with information about each one listed in the drop-down menus below.

1. Setting up a HACCP Team

The first step is to set up your site’s HACCP Team. Typically, your team will include representatives from Quality, Production, Hygiene, and Engineering.

When relevant or necessary, you may also need to invite team members from Health and Safety, Human Resources, New Product Development, and Procurement.

2. Training the team

Your HACCP Team will require a higher level of training than other site staff. Whilst standard operatives will require only a general awareness of HACCP, your HACCP Team will need an in-depth understanding. This is especially true of your designated Team Leader, who will need to be extremely familiar with the principles and process.

For HACCP Team Members and Team Leaders, certification will be required. Refresher training will then need to be carried out every 3-5 years.

3. Walking the process

Your HACCP Team will need to walk along the entirety of your production process. They should start where ingredients or services (e.g. gas/electric/water) first arrive at your site and end where finished products leave the premises.

For some sites, one HACCP plan will be sufficient. However, at larger sites with more complex processes, multiple HACCP plans may be required.

4. Process Flow Diagram

Next, your HACCP Team will need to create a Process Flow Diagram. This diagram should reflect the stages of production identified during step three.

Typically, each stage will be named and numbered. You will also need to show how each process connects and include decision boxes that flow in different directions.

5. Review the potential hazards at each stage

There are three key areas to consider:

1. Microbiological

When assessing the potential for Microbiological Hazards at each stage, you will need to ask the following questions:

  • Could pathogenic bacteria already be present? e.g. Salmonella and Campylobacter in raw chicken.
  • Are there any environmental conditions that could be contributing to the growth of bacteria? e.g. temperature and time.
  • Could the cross-contamination of pathogenic bacteria occur? e.g. Listeria cross-contamination during the transfer of salad ingredients to a High Care environment.
  • Could spores of toxin-forming bacteria be generated? e.g. a delay in cooling could lead to toxin-forming bacteria.

2. Physical

Physical Hazards are separated into two categories:

Intrinsic Physical Hazards occur naturally in the product or ingredient, but should have been removed either during production or before arriving on site. Examples include seeds and pips, fish bones, and chicken bones.

Non-Intrinsic Physical Hazards do not occur naturally. Instead, they are the result of contamination within production. Examples include glass, hard and soft plastic, paper, hair, and stones.

3. Chemical

Chemical Hazards can come in many forms:

  • If a surface has recently been cleaned, hygiene chemicals may still be present.
  • Engineering lubricants and greases may find their way onto equipment or machinery.
  • All 14 of the EU allergens are considered chemical hazards.
  • Non-food chemicals destined for other businesses may arrive at your site on delivery vehicles, so cross-contamination may have taken place in transit.
  • Colour pigments or chemicals on equipment and packaging could migrate during production.

6. Identify any controls already in place

It is likely that your food production site will already have pre-requisites in place. Pre-requisites are the basic building blocks of manufacturing and are also referred to as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Examples include (not an exhaustive list):

  • Cleaning
  • Maintenance
  • Personal Hygiene
  • Training
  • Pest Control
  • Plan and Equipment
  • Services
  • Premises and Structure
  • Storage, Distribution and Transport
  • Allergen Controls
  • Waste Management
  • Traceability
  • Cross Contamination Prevention

Your HACCP Team will need to identify any pre-requisites already in place and assess how effective they are. Where failings arise, Root Cause Analysis will need to be carried out to find out where the loss of control happened. The relevant pre-requisites can then be adjusted to ensure the issue doesn’t occur again.

7. Risk assess each hazard

Next, your HACCP Team will need to carry out a Risk Assessment for each hazard. The most effective way to do this is to use a Risk Assessment table. There are two factors to consider:

  1. What is the likelihood of the hazard occurring at your site?
  2. What would the severity be if this hazard occurs?

A likelihood and severity score should be given to each hazard, then the combined score will be known as the risk score. Each risk score falls into a category of Green, Amber, and Red. Typically, HACCP Teams will prioritise hazards that fall into Amber and Red.

Below is an example of a Risk Assessment Table:

2. Determine whether there is a Critical Control Point (CCP)

At each stage of production, your HACCP Team will need to determine if there is a Critical Control Point (CCP) to consider.

What is a Critical Control Point or CCP?

Put simply, a Critical Control Point is a step in the manufacturing process at which food safety hazards can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level (this level will be pre-determined by the HACCP Team).

Typically, this will involve answering the five questions listed below:

1. At this stage of production, is the hazard already being adequately managed by a Good Manufacturing Practice / Pre-Requisite?

If the answer is YES, a CCP is not required.

If the answer is NO, the HACCP Team will move onto the next question.

2. Does a control measure exist for the hazard at this stage of production?

If the answer is YES, the HACCP Team will move onto the next question.

If the answer is NO, this stage in production may need to be modified to ensure the proper controls are in place.

3. Has the process step been designed to prevent, eliminate, or reduce the hazard to an acceptable level?

E.g. Full cooking process, blast chilling process, or metal detection.

If the answer is YES, this stage of production will need to be controlled via a CCP.

If the answer is NO, the HACCP Team will move onto the next question.

4. Could contamination with the hazard occur at unacceptable levels or increase to unacceptable levels if the control failed?

If the answer is YES, the HACCP Team will move onto the next question.

If the answer is NO, a CCP is not required.

5. Is there a subsequent process step that will reduce the hazard(s) to an acceptable level?

E.g. During the deboning of meat, there is a risk that the tip of a knife could lodge itself in the product. However, if the product is going to pass through a metal detector further down the line, the hazard may be reduced to an acceptable level.

If the answer is YES, a CCP is not required.

If the answer is NO, this stage of production will need to be controlled via a CCP.

3. Establish Critical Limits

What is a Critical Limit?

A Critical Limit is a maximum or minimum value to which a biological, chemical, or physical parameter must be controlled to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level of occurrence a food safety hazard.

It must be something that can be recorded and should never be left open for interpretation.

Examples include:

  • A Critical Limit for a cooking process could be set at 75°C. This would mean that product temperatures post cooking of 74.9°C or under would be considered a food safety risk.
  • A Critical Limit for a metal detector could be set at 0.4mm. This would mean that anything measuring 0.5mm or over would be considered a choke hazard.

How do you determine your Critical Limits?

Your HACCP Team will determine the Critical Limits at your site in a number of ways:

  • It may be that the Critical Limits for certain processes are historic and have always been carried out in the same way either at your factory or across the industry.
  • Your HACCP Team may carry out a physical check. E.g. If you are deciding on a Critical Limit for the number and size of bones in a product, your team may decide to conduct bone checks in order to determine the current level, along with what level would be required to be considered acceptable.
  • Laboratory Testing could also help your HACCP Team to determine Critical Limits. This could involve chemical testing or microbiological testing.

4. Establish Monitoring Procedures

Next, your HACCP Team will need to establish an effective approach to monitoring the Critical Control Points at your site. This process can be broken down into three key stages:

1. What type of monitoring are you going to carry out?

E.g. temperature, physical counting checks, pH, and dilution.

2. How frequently will you be carrying out the tests?

To answer this question, your HACCP Team will need to consider how long a product is on site before it is distributed. Some factories will only have products under their control for around two hours before they are dispatched to customers. In this instance, it would make sense to carry out a new round of testing before the two hour limit is reached. That way, if any issues are detected, the matter can be resolved while everything is still on site.

Another consideration is your factory’s capacity to deal with compromised product. Say your site carried out a new round of testing every four hours, if an issue was detected, you would have to pull four hours worth of product. Are you in a position to manage the cost, time delays, and space requirements involved with that much product? If not, your HACCP Team will need to consider reducing the testing window.

3. Who is going to carry out the monitoring at your site?

Your HACCP Team will need to determine who will be carrying out the monitoring at your site. They will also need to think about what training these operatives will require.

It is essential that the relevant operatives are trained in both the monitoring application and any corrective action that may need to be taken.

They will also need to have an awareness of HACCP. E.g. What is the reason for carrying out the test? How is the test going to be carried out? What are the pre-determined Critical Limits?

5. Establish Corrective Actions

Next, your HACCP Team will need to establish Corrective Actions. Put simply, this is what happens if a reading falls short of or exceeds a Critical Limit.

Corrective Actions should:

  • Be agreed upon by the wider team
  • Bring the result back within the Critical Limit as quickly as possible
  • Take into consideration all the product that has already passed through the CCP since the last successful check
  • Take into consideration any cross-contamination that may have occurred due to loss of control

6. Establish Verification Procedures

Validation

Will your HACCP plan ensure the production of safe food?

Verification

Is the HACCP plan working and is it producing safe food?

Review

Is the HACCP plan totally
up to date?

Validation: Prior to implementing the HACCP plan, your HACCP Team needs to review the plan and ensure it works to reduce or eliminate all identified risks. They can obtain evidence of this in a number of ways. Examples include: challenge testing, production trials, and mathematical modelling. Your HACCP Team will also need to review relevant legislation and codes of practice.

Verification: Once the HACCP plan has been implemented, your HACCP Team needs to demonstrate ongoing compliance. Verification activities include:

  • Internal audits
  • Calibration
  • Analysis of any instances of deviation from the Critical Limits
  • Customer complaints and feedback
  • Microbiological / chemical testing of environmental surfaces, raw materials, or finished products

Review: Your HACCP Team will need to review the HACCP plan at regular intervals, at least once a year. Reviews may also be needed more frequently if changes are proposed that might increase food safety issues. These changes are commonly referred to as ‘triggers’ and examples include the introduction of new:

  • Products or ingredients
  • Processes / applications
  • Equipment or machinery
  • Legislation
  • Customer requirements
  • Issues or incidents

7. Record-keeping and Documentation

The final HACCP principle is record-keeping and documentation. This principle is extremely important, especially when it comes to securing audit compliance.

When deciding on the right approach, your team will need to answer the following questions:

  • Which is preferable: paper or digital records?
  • How will the records be collated?
  • How will the records be checked?
  • How do you avoid human error?
  • What are the customer expectations?
  • Where will they be stored for easy access?

Most HACCP Teams will push for a Digital Quality Management System that allows them to store their records centrally, locate specific documents with a simple search, and generate audit-ready reports.

This approach not only saves time, reduces paper wastage, and frees up team members to focus on other tasks, but it also reduces the risk of operator error. This is especially true if the selected Digital Quality Management System is able to connect directly to instruments such as Food Oil Monitors, Temperature Probes, and Wireless Temperature Sensors.

The right Digital Quality Management System will also send targeted, automatic alerts whenever a Critical Limit is breached and will support the creation of customised HACCP checklists that ensure total traceability.

And that wraps up our guide to The 7 Principles of HACCP. We hope this article has helped to answer key questions surrounding this popular approach to managing food safety hazards.

If you have any further questions about HACCP, our in-house team of experts are here to provide support.

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