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Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a production control system for the food industry. It is a process used to determine the potential danger points in food production and to define a strict management and monitoring system to ensure safe food products for consumers. HACCP is designed to prevent potential microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards, rather than catch them. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) use HACCP programs as an effective approach to food safety and protecting public health.
HACCP began in 1959 when the Pillsbury Corporation cooperated with the U.S. Army and the National Aeronautics Space Association (NASA) to ensure the safety of food in space programs. Originally known as the “Modes of Failure”, it was adapted over the next twenty years, and with the help of the National Conference of Food Protection and the National Academy of Science it developed into what is known today as HACCP. Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP), and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) are also among a number of prerequisite programs that laid the foundation for HACCP.
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HACCP Research Areas |
- Evaluate the effect of high pressure processing (HPP) on the inactivation of spores of Clostridium botulinum types A, B, and E in a model buffer and a food system.
- Organize a committee of HACCP experts from industry, academia, and government and operate in a workshop format to develop a library of generic HACCP plans and models.
- Evaluate the use of biocontrol or biological competition to serve as a secondary barrier against toxin production by Clostridium botulinum in extended shelf life refrigerated foods possessing a pH greater than 4.6.
- Study thermal and non-thermal in-shell pasteurization of eggs mathematically and microbiologically to determine the potential for the use of microwave energy in eliminating Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) in in-shell eggs.
- Develop rapid tests for detecting pathogens is an ongoing and important aspect of food safety in the meat industry. NCBA has sponsored several studies that are assisting companies in development of new diagnostic tests. USDA’s Agricultural Research Service is also very active in this area of research.
- Evaluate the genetic make-up of serotypes of organisms such as E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria, identify where they enter the processing system and identify which sub-types of the organisms are causing human illness.
- Improve sampling procedures including the development of more sensitive, accurate, and rapid pathogen detection tests for the meat industry to detect microbial contamination that may occur during the meat production process.
- Improve microbial safety of meat and the development of more effective intervention procedures to reduce or control pathogens throughout slaughter and processing.
- Determine new and important CCPs or processing events that require specific contamination-preventative measures to provide unique information regarding the nature of specific pathogens to guide the development of better methods to identify and reduce or eliminate meat contamination.
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HACCP and the Food Industry | | In addition to human illness, food safety problems can cause economic losses to producers, processors, and consumers, and jeopardize the international competitiveness of the U.S. agricultural industry. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), four reasons stated by management to implement a HACCP plan include,(1) existing and potential product liability claims, (2) concern over impact on reputation and sales, (3) complying with federal and state statutes, and (4) monitoring the safety of new products and processes.
Juice, meat and poultry, and seafood HACCP are regulated at the federal level with inspectors being responsible for the inspection processes. Meat and poultry HACCP systems are regulated by the USDA, while seafood and juice are regulated by the FDA. The use of HACCP is currently voluntary in other food industries.
Processing plants must develop a HACCP plan for each of its products, and they must identify critical control points during their processes where hazards such as microbial contamination can occur. They must also establish controls to prevent or reduce those hazards, and maintain records documenting that the controls are working as intended.
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Seven principles of HACCP |
- Analyze hazards - Potential hazards associated with a food and measures to control those hazards are identified. The hazard can be biological, such as a microbe; chemical, such as a toxin; or physical, such as ground glass or metal fragments.
- Identify critical control points - These are points in a food's production--from its raw state through processing and shipping to consumption by the consumer--at which the potential hazard can be controlled or eliminated. Examples are cooking, cooling, packaging, and metal detection.
- Establish preventive measures with critical limits for each control point - For a cooked food, for example, this may include setting the minimum cooking temperature and time required to ensure the elimination of any harmful microbes.
- Establish procedures to monitor the critical control points - Such procedures may include determining how and by whom cooking time and temperature should be monitored.
- Establish corrective actions to be taken when monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been met - for example, reprocessing or disposing of food if the minimum cooking temperature is not met.
- Establish procedures to verify that the system is working properly - For example, testing time-and-temperature recording devices to verify that a cooking unit is working properly.
- Establish effective recordkeeping to document the HACCP system - This may include records of hazards and their control methods, the monitoring of safety requirements and action taken to correct potential problems. Each of these principles must be science-based such as published microbiological studies on time and temperature factors for controlling foodborne pathogens.
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Juice HACCP regulations | |
Each year 16,000 to 48,000 Americans experience foodborne illness from fruit and vegetable juices. The FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) found that most frequently contamination occurs during the growing and harvesting of fruits, but can also occur at any point from harvest to table. In 1998, as a preventative measure to this problem, the FDA released the Final Rule 63 FR 20450 stating that the most effective way to ensure juice safety is to process the products under a system of preventative measures (HACCP). The HACCP juice regulation covers both pasteurized as well as non-pasteurized fruit and vegetable juices. (Juice – HACCP Final Rule: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr01119a.html)
The juice HACCP rule applies to both interstate and intrastate commerce. The final rule went into effect for medium and large facilities in January 2002, for small facilities January 2003, and for very small facilities January 2004.
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Meat and Poultry HACCP regulations | | The potential threat of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella in meat and poultry products have created the need to search for new approaches to eliminate pathogen contamination. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggests foodborne microbial pathogens are responsible for nearly 5 million cases of foodborne illness and more than 4,000 deaths associated with meat and poultry products each year.
In order to address this problem, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) determined requirements to reduce the number of foodborne illnesses and pathogens on meat and poultry products in July of 1996. For the first time ever, slaughter plants and plants that produced raw, ground meat and poultry were required to systematically target and reduce harmful bacteria. The final rule went into effect for medium and large facilities in 1998, for small facilities January 1999, and for very small facilities January 2000. (Meat and Poultry: HACCP Final Rule http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/fr/haccp_rule.htm)
The rule consist of the following four elements:
- All slaughter and processing plants are required to adopt a system of process controls (HACCP) to prevent food safety hazards.
- Slaughter plants are required to conduct microbial testing for generic E. coli to verify that their control systems are working as intended to prevent fecal contamination.
- Plants must meet pathogen reduction performance standards set by FSIS for their raw products.
- All plants must adopt and implement a written plan (sanitation standard operating procedures) for meeting its basic sanitation responsibilities.
FSIS has more than 7,400 inspectors in 6,200 slaughter and meat and poultry processing plants to ensure that unsafe and unhealthy animals and birds do not enter the food supply. The inspectors guarantee that sanitation and other requirements are met as well as monitor the volatile levels of chemical residues.
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Seafood HACCP regulations | |
The FDA has regulated the seafood industry for decades, but in December 1997, it began requiring the use of HACCP programs to further ensure the safety of shellfish and fish. (Federal Register 60 FR 65095) Firms in the United States or in foreign countries that engage in handling, storing, preparing, heading, eviscerating, shucking, freezing, changing into different market forms, manufacturing, preserving, packing, labeling, dockside unloading, or holding fish and fishery products are required to comply to the HACCP program. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) maintains the voluntary fee-for-service inspection program and cover all processors. (Seafood: HACCP Final Rule http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/haccp4x8.html)
It is estimated that the implementation of this regulation can prevent anywhere between 20,000 to 60,000 seafood poisonings that occur each year. Since the implementation of the program, inspection frequency has increased from an average of every four years to annually. Unlike many other areas of the food industry, seafood and fish are still primarily harvested from individuals or small businesses, making it more difficult to regulate. Progress is currently being made with improvements in the understanding of seafood safety and upgrades in equipment and facilities.
Beyond the United States, other countries that have adopted Seafood HACCP systems and procedures include: Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Iceland, Argentina, Peru, Ireland, Cuba, Morocco, Norway, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
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HACCP Alliances | | Three alliances have been developed to provide uniform training and education for the implementation and maintenance of HACCP systems.
- The International HACCP Alliance was developed on March 25, 1994. It is housed within the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University to provide a uniform program to assure safer meat and poultry products.
- The Seafood HACCP Alliance is a funded proposal by the National Sea Grant Program to support training and education. The alliance was initiated by the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) and their regional affiliate of Southern States (AFDOSS) in conjunction with a group of Sea Grant Seafood Specialists whom originally assisted the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) with their initial HACCP training programs.
- The Juice HACCP Alliance was organized by the National Center for Food Safety and Technology with the assistance of juice processing experts from government, industry, trade associations, AFDO and academia to develop a Juice HACCP curriculum.
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HACCP Research | | With industry becoming more consumer-driven and the demand for high quality foods that are minimally processed, free of additives and residues, healthy, convenient, and affordable, it is impossible for traditional post-harvest processing technologies like canning, fermentation and drying to satisfy all of these demands simultaneously. Researchers have began developing new non-thermal processing technologies like irradiation, hydrostatic pressure processing (HPP), and hydrodynamic pressure (HDP) processing. However, HPP and HDP present a unique set of processing potential dangers that must also be addressed.
Today, research is concentrated on evaluating the implementation of HACCP in production and processing facilities. Scientists are surveying the production and processing practices, and determining their impact on the incidents and magnitudes of the hazards. The attitudes and perceptions of safety among processors, including the risk management and assessment, are also being considered.
New sampling methodologies for different critical control points as well as comparisons of microbial sampling and testing methods to evaluate the HACCP plans are also a large area of study. This knowledge will be integrated into applications usable by the food industry as part of a HACCP program.
For an update on the HACCP research conducted by the USDA/ARS National Program 108 Food Safety visit the following section of the 2005 Annual Report:
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Resources |
- HACCP Questions and Answers
International HACCP Alliance
- What HACCP Really Means
International HACCP Alliance
- Juice HACCP
FDA/CFSAN
- Juice Regulations Underway
(PDF Format)
USDA/ERS. 1999
- Introduction to HACCP Principles in Meat Plants
(PDF Format)
Texas A&M University - Department of Animal Science
- The Final Rule on Pathogen Reduction and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Systems
USDA/FSIS
- Pathogen Reduction/HACCP & HACCP Implementation
USDA/FSIS
- Seafood HACCP
FDA/CFSAN
- Food Safety/HACCP
Illinois Institute of Technology, National Center for Food Safety & Technology
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