What is HACCP?
The HACCP system represents a type of food management using an approach for control of the hazards and critical points in food handling in order to prevent food safety problems.
The HACCP is an internationally recognized system as an effective method for ensuring the safety of food and its suitability for human consumption and international market.
HACCP is a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution.
For successful implementation of a HACCP plan, management must be strongly committed to the HACCP concept. A firm commitment to HACCP by top management provides company employees with a sense of the importance of producing safe food.
HACCP involves seven principles:
-Analyze hazards. Potential hazards associated with a food and measures to control those hazards are identified. The hazard could 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 might 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 might 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 would 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 backed by sound scientific knowledge: for example, published microbiological studies on time and temperature factors for controlling food borne pathogens.
Food safety systems based on the HACCP principles have been successfully applied in food processing plants, retail food stores, and food service operations. The seven principles of HACCP have been universally accepted by government agencies, trade associations and the food industry around the world.
What is BRC?
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) Technical Standard for Companies Supplying Retailer Branded Food Products was developed in 1998 to provide a common standard for companies supplying retailer branded food products. The BRC Technical Standard was developed by UK supermarket retailers to assist them in their fulfilment of legal obligations and protection of the consumer. In March 2003 the standard was renamed the BRC Global Standard – Food.
The Standard was created to establish a standard for the supply of food products and to act as key piece of evidence for UK retailers and brand owners to demonstrate ‘due diligence' in the face of potential prosecution by the enforcement authorities.
This publication has now become the international mark of excellence. Certification to the Standard verifies technical competence and aids manufacturers, brand owners and retailers fulfilment of legal obligations. It also safeguards the consumer.
The retail industry, food manufacturers, importers, caterers, ingredient suppliers and the food service industry can all benefit greatly from this essential Standard. The Standard is currently used by suppliers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Far East, Australasia, North and South America - a truly global Standard.
The Standard possesses a comprehensive scope covering all areas of product safety and legality, the Standard addresses part of the due diligence requirements of both the supplier and the retailer.
The fundamental Standard requirements are:
-HACCP System
-Quality management system
-Internal Audit
-Corrective Action
-Traceability
-Layout, Product Flow and Segregation
-Housekeeping and Hygiene
-Handling Requirements for Specific Materials
-Control of Operation
-Training
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