HACCP

How SNO Strengthens Your Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Foundations

Food service directors and dietary managers don’t need to be told how crucial HACCP compliance is for their residents and staff. Regular and effective HACCP planning and execution protects the integrity of your facilities’ operations and Simplified Nutrition Online (SNO) is dedicated to helping you perform your best for HACCP compliance and safety.

What Exactly is HACCP?

HACCP, which stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, arose in the 1960’s from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA needed to ensure proper food safety and prevent foodborne illness for their astronauts on active missions, thus HACCP was born. HACCP is a system that prioritizes and controls potential hazards in food production and its supply chain and HACCP plans are the foundation of Food Safety Plans everywhere. The HACCP process applies to the entire food supply chain—from food manufacturing, to production, to distribution.

It is of paramount importance for your facility to have an HACCP plan in place in order to prevent any deviations from critical points for federal and state regulation. Aberrations from a critical limit within HACCP plans typically result in a corrective action and the HACCP steps in SNO's Preparation Guides and reports validate your compliance with food safety regulations. SNO’s database of thousands of recipes contain production and safety instructions, along with photos and videos, and group classification for HACCP compliance. The first step to success in your long-term care, hospital, educational or corrections facility is HACCP training and the following are the seven HACCP principles.

The 7 HACCP Principles:

1. Conduct a Hazard Analysis

This step is the most important step used in the HACCP plan. This imperative step identifies the biological, chemical, or physical hazards that can occur at each step in your manufacturing process. If a hazard is identified, ask yourself, "Is this hazard significant or reasonably likely to occur?" Make sure to validate your answer and decide which control measures you have in place for those hazards.

In food prep and processing areas, it is critical for your facility to identify all the likely hazards that could be related with the raw materials, processes and finished products and to identify all the controls necessary. This assures the safety of food production. SNO understands the necessity of safeguarding against possible food safety and production hazards and our recipe production reports take into account these critical care points.

Samples of SNO reports.

2. Identify Critical Control Points

The second principle in the HACCP process is to recognize critical control points. Critical control points are steps or procedures at which you can control, prevent, eliminate, or reduce a hazard to a satisfactory level.

Here are a few typical examples of CCPs:

· Cooking processes.

· Chilling.

· Metal detection.

It should be noted that CCPs are specific to a facility's unique manufacturing process of goods and must be appropriately identified to control significant or likely-to-occur hazards. SNO takes CCPs seriously and our Production Reports highlight the critical HACCP steps to ensure proper food safety such as temperature controls, and appropriate ways to prepare and serve food.

3. Establish Critical Limits

Once CCPs are identified in your facility and production areas, you must identify the critical limits you need to meet for each CCP. A critical limit is a minimum value by which a hazard needs to be controlled to ensure a food product's safety. These critical limits must be authorized. To do so, you may need to conduct internal tests or consult outside resources like regulatory guidelines or scientific studies to ensure your facility is up to par with CCPs..

This is a screenshot from within SNO demonstrating CCP registration

4. Develop Monitoring Procedures

The fourth step in the HACCP plan is to establish procedures for monitoring your CCPs and using those results to correct the process as needed. These monitoring procedures evaluate whether a CCP is under control (does not exceed the critical limits) and provides a record for verification. Monitoring is either continuous, like automated temperature control systems, or non-continuous, such as visual evaluations.

5. Decide on Corrective Actions

The next step of the HACCP principles is to decide on the appropriate corrective action steps to take. In the event that a deviation and a critical limit is not met, you must have predefined actions set in place. This practice makes sure that no contaminated product enters the facility and determines how to dispose the affected product appropriately.

Corrective actions must:

· Determine how to dispose of the product,

· Identify the root cause,

· Demonstrate the CCP is under control once again,

· Recognize preventive measures to prevent any recurrences,

· Keep accurate records of the actions taken.

6. Create Verification Procedures

The sixth HACCP principle is to establish verification procedures. This step double-checks that your HACCP plan is carried out appropriately and is effective. Verification includes:

· CCP process step verification,

· Facility audits,

· Calibration of monitoring instruments,

· Perform an overall check that the food safety system is working as planned.

7. Form Record-keeping Procedures

You must have accurate records which are crucial in proving your facility’s food production is safe. The HACCP records serve as evidence that your facility has planned appropriate monitoring and verification steps as expected, your production stays within critical limits, your corrective actions are in place, and that your product is safe to consume for your residents.

Not documenting activity is as if the activity never happened. It is the documentation that provides irrefutable evidence to state regulators and surveyors that demonstrates your team is following the HACCP plan. There’s no escaping this! These records must be complete, accurate, and timely. Remember, HACCP records are legal documents so you want to make sure they are complete and accurate.

The following are types of HACCP records commonly requested by FDA and USDA Inspectors:

· Critical control point records;

· Critical limits records;

· CCP Monitoring records;

· Records associated with deviations;

· Verification activity records;

· HACCP Plan and supporting documents.

Our goal here at SNO is to help you cross

all the t’s and dot all the i’s for HACCP compliance.

Contact Dr. Coreyann Poly today at 888-773-5521 x 1016

or email her at [email protected] for more information.

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