Product Index

Follow These Seven Steps of HACCP Implementation

1. Analyze and Identify Potential Hazards: A hazard is any biological (e.g. bacterium), chemical (e.g. toxin), or physical contaminant (e.g. broken glass), that could cause illness or injury if not properly controlled. After a thorough review is conducted and the potential hazards are identified, a list of control measures should be generated. Control measures are actions or activities that will prevent, eliminate or reduce the hazard.

2. Identify Critical Control Points (CCP): A CCP is defined as a point, procedure or step at which a food safety hazard could either be eliminated, prevented or reduced. CCPs should be carefully developed and documented.

3. Establish Preventive Measures with Critical Limits: Critical limits are maximum and/or minimum values that will prevent, eliminate or reduce a biological, chemical or physical hazard. A CCP will have at least one, and possibly several, control measures to achieve the aforementioned goal.

4. Monitor the Critical Control Points: Monitoring is a planned sequence of observations or measurements to determine whether a CCP is under control. Another important component of this step is the recording of the measurements to establish a written record for later use in verification.

5. Define Corrective Action(s): Prior to enforcing a HACCP plan, corrective actions should be established for each CCP. Corrective actions should determine and correct the cause of deviation and establish whether a food product should be discarded.

6. Establish Verification Procedures: Verification activities determine the efficacy of the HACCP plan and ensure the system is operating correctly. Using the verification procedures, an establishment should conduct frequent review of the HACCP plan and its components.

7. Establish Record-Keeping and Documentation: Maintaining procedures for the records of the HACCP plan is necessary to ensure that critical limits are working and being monitored. Documentation should be kept for the entire food process.