It is a management tool for a preventative food safety programme in systems that range from primary producer to final consumer.
The HACCP system is designed to be used to prevent the occurrence of food borne hazards from production through manufacturing, storage and distribution of a food product in retail and various food service operations. The implementation of food safety management systems incorporating HACCP can be prerequisite to market access.
All businesses involved in the food supply chain from producers to retailers can use HACCP. It can be applied throughout the food chain from primary production to final consumption and its implementation should be guided by scientific evidence of risks to human health. Retailer should also be able or adopt HACCP to ensure that they all safe food which the primary producers and processors have endeavored to ensure reaches them in good condition.
Correct temperature control and prevention of cross –examination will be essential control measures in both large and small premises. Without proper controls in place, this can raise the risk of introduction of harmful bacteria onto food contact surfaces and finished product. Other contributing factors are poor personal hygiene, inadequate cooking, improper holding temperatures and contaminated equipment.
Some retailers may sell only prepacked food items, in which case it’s less likely that HACCP will be a major element of health and safety. This is because packaging will very likely remove most of the risks of biological, chemical and physical hazards.
Major retailers used the HACCP framework as a management troubleshooting tool, because its methodical and logical approach lent itself the ‘reactive’ investigation and solution of those food safety incidents at arose on occasions. However, the disruptive costs of product withdrawals and recall, plus the costs of adverse publicity, soon pushed the supermarkets into developing the use of HACCP systems in a more proactive and preventive way.
The retailers also recognized the importance of establishing a common approach to auditing HACCP systems, moving from independent auditing to the use of accredited third-party auditors and establishing minimum audit standards.
The HACCP application may be difficult for smaller shops, butchers for example, where both raw and cooled meat products have historically been sold by the same staff and from the same counter. In such examples changes reporting standards will almost certainly be required, but these can be identified in a systematic way through use of the HACCP Principles.
For some of the smaller and independent retailers, the application is likely to be less technical, given the lower level of technical expertise available. If truly understood and linked to good hygiene practices, HACCP should help to improve food safety control and hence significantly reduce risk.
Retailers and HACCP
