The first new concept I learned when I went to culinary school was HACCP. Yes, we all follow a certain set of rules in our home kitchen especially in handling raw food and how to store it before and after cooking. But learning HACCP was enlightening. Not only is it applicable to food safety but to all day-to-day activities which involve RISK.
So what is HACCP?
After reading through various sources, here is my own understanding of what HACCP is.
HACCP is an acronym used for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is basically a system of procedures to follow for proper safety and quality to be achieved by minimizing the risks of a hazard or problem from happening.
It is believed to have started during WWII in the production process monitoring of bombshells since there is no way to do "end of the line" testing for it. It was then later conceived, developed, and applied strictly by NASA (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in its preparation of food for space flights. Successively because of its effectiveness in determining and handling problems in high-risk food processing and manufacturing, it was adapted as the logical system followed in the inspection of food safety and quality.
There are seven (7) HACCP principles that must be strictly followed, these are:
1. Conduct a Hazard Analysis - As a principle, it is most important to understand the systems and procedures of your production process first in order to identify potential hazards that could occur. In this stage, the hazards such as but not limited to physical, biological, or chemical, must be identified and categorized. After which a system of procedures must be designed to control, manage or eliminate said hazards.
2. Identify the Critical Control Points - This principle also requires that you have full knowledge of the flow of procedure of your system because this is when you identify a point or stage wherein a hazard may occur and as a result, a process of prevention and elimination must be done to maintain the safety and quality of the food product.
3. Establish Critical Limits - After you have established your Critical Control Points, what do you then? This is when you establish your Critical Limits. You must establish a minimum and maximum level wherein you will consider it as a safe zone. Anywhere lower or higher of that level, an alert system must be established.
4. Establish Critical Control Points Monitoring Requirements - What do you then when you know all the critical control points and critical limits? You must then monitor it, making sure that it is being checked and followed as often and as accurately as possible.
5. Establish Corrective Actions - What happens if a certain control point exceeded its critical limits after monitoring? You must have a ready and established corrective course of action that must be applied automatically once a limit has been breached.
6. Establish effective recordkeeping procedures - An accurate and easy to find system of keeping records must be established for it to be effective when checked by authorities if proper implementation and monitoring is being followed by the people in charge of determining, monitoring, and resolving the hazards identified in the critical control points that have been established.
7. Establish procedures for verifying - After establishing all of the above systems and procedures, a procedure for verifying the effectivity and efficiency of such must be established through a thorough and recurring review of the critical control points, critical limits, corrective actions, and record keeping.
For me, the cycle is never-ending. Risk is always present and we must always foresee what might happen by knowing what it is, what is its limits, and what do we do to prevent, eliminate, or minimize the harm not only to ourselves but to others as well.
Happy Cooking! ;)
