Chapter 4
HACCP – HAZARD ANALYSIS AND
CRITICAL CONTROL POINTS
The HACCP system, as it applies to food safety management, uses the approach of controlling
critical points in food handling to prevent food safety problems. The system, which is science based
and systematic, identifies specific hazards and measures for their control to ensure the safety of food.
HACCP is based on prevention and reduces the reliance on end-product inspection and testing.
Objectives:
In this chapter the student will able to;
 Discuss the the meaning of HACCP; and
 Identify the seven principles.
Lesson: 1
HACCP
what is HACCP?
stands for Hazard
Analysis
Critical Control Point. HACCP is a systematic
approach to the identification, evaluation, and
control of food safety hazards. It is a proactive
strategy where hazards are identified and
assessed, and control measures are developed
to prevent, reduce, or eliminate a hazard.
What to expect:
 Define what is HACCP;
 Identify the seven establish principles.
This is an internationally recognized system for reducing the risk of safety hazards in food. A HACCP
System requires that potential hazards are identified and controlled at specific points in the process.
This includes biological, chemical or physical hazards. Any company involved in the manufacturing,
processing or handling of food products can use HACCP to minimize or eliminate food safety hazards
in their product.
The HACCP system is a scientific and systematic approach to identify, assess and control of
hazards in the food production process. With the HACCP system, food safety control is integrated
into the design of the process rather than relied on end-product testing. Therefore HACCP system
provides a preventive and thus cost-effective approach in food safety.
HACCP attempts to avoid hazards rather than attempting to inspect finished products for the effects
of those hazards.
The HACCP system can be used at all stages of a food chain, from food production and
preparation processes including packaging, distribution, etc. HACCP has been increasingly applied to
industries other than food, such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. What does haccp stand for is a
very common question, let’s go thru it in details. There are seven principles of HACCP that need to be
used and implemented in any food industry throughout the world. These principles include the
following:
Analysis hazards
A food safety hazard is any biological, chemical or physical property that may cause a food to be
unsafe for human consumption. We analyze hazards to identify any hazardous biological, chemical,
or physical property in raw materials and processing steps, and to assess their likeliness of
occurrence and potential to render food unsafe for consumption.
Determine critical control points
A critical control point is a point, a step or a procedure in a food manufacture process at which control
can be applied and, as a result, a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an
acceptable level. Not every point identified with hazards and preventive measures will become a
critical control point. A logical decision-making process is applied to determine whether or not the
process is a critical control point.
Establish limits for critical control points
Limit for critical control point is a criterion which separates acceptability from unacceptability. It is the
maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical hazard must be controlled at
a critical control point to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level the occurrence of the
identified food safety hazard.
Establish monitoring procedures for critical control points
Monitoring is a planned sequence of observations or measurements to assess whether a critical
control point is under control and to produce an accurate record for future use in verification.
Monitoring is very important for a HACCP system. Monitoring can warn the plant if there is a trend
towards loss of control so that it can take action to bring the process back into control before the limit
is exceeded.
Establish corrective actions
Corrective action is an action taken when the results of monitoring at the critical control point indicate
that the limit is exceeded, i.e. a loss of control. Since HACCP is a preventive system to correct
problems before they affect food safety, plant management has to plan in advance to correct potential
deviations from established critical limits. Whenever a limit for critical control point is exceeded, the
plant will need to take corrective actions immediately.
The plant management has to determine the corrective action in advance. The employees monitoring
the critical control point should understand this process and be trained to perform the appropriate
corrective actions.
Establish verification procedures
Verification is the application of methods, procedures, tests and other evaluations, in addition to
monitoring, to determine compliance with the HACCP plan. Some examples of verification are the
calibration of process monitoring instruments at specified intervals, direct observation of monitoring
activities, and corrective actions. Besides, sampling of product, monitoring records review and
inspections can serve to verify the HACCP system.
The plant management should check that the employees are keeping accurate and timely HACCP
records.
Establish a record system
Recording is a mandatory part of the process. The record of a HACCP system should include records
for critical control points, establishments of limits, corrective actions, results of verification activities,
and the plan including hazard analysis.
Lesson 2:
HACCP IS BASED ON SEVEN ESTABLISH PRINCIPLES
The seven steps or seven principles of the hazard analysis and critical control points were put in
place in 1989 by The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. The 7
principles are included in the international standard and are implemented in many food safety
programs all over the world. The seven steps or principles are broken down like this.
What to expect:
 Discuss HACCP is based on seven establish principles; and
.
PRINCIPLE 1: Conduct a hazard analysis.
Plants and factories determine the food safety hazards and identify the preventive measures the plant
can apply to control these hazards. A food safety hazard is any biological, chemical or physical
property that can cause a food to be unsafe for human consumption.
Biological hazards
In an instance when food is not produced in a clean and sterile environment (free from dangerous
microorganisms), it can easily be contaminated by biological hazards such as viruses, bacteria,
parasites and fungi. It is at this stage that the person conducting hazard analysis may look for the
steps in producing the food where it may become contaminated by these dangerous microorganisms.
Chemical hazards
Chemical added intentionally or unintentionally to a manufactured food items that may cause serious
threat to the health and life of the person consuming it is may considered as a chemical hazard. It is
at this stage that the danger of chemical contamination to food may occur. Thus, at this stage, make
sure that the employees are well trained to keep all dangerous cleaning and sanitizing chemicals out
of the kitchen and the other production area. It also at this stage that they have to make sure food
additives or food preservatives that are chemical based are properly measured in order not to
jeopardize the health of the person consuming such food items.
Physical hazards
Physical hazards at this stage refers to foreign food items that are added accidentally to the food that
may cause serious damage to the well being of the person being affected.
Among physical hazards that had been found mixed in the food that had caused serious damage to
the customer are the following:

Broken glass mixed with iced drinks

Jewelry mixed in the items

Cracked or chipped glass wares that may cause mouth injury

Fragments of tin can mixed while opening canned food items

Needles, toothpics, hair pins in food items
Thus, at this stage, the establishment had to train properly their employees to avoid physical
contamination. Certain standards and measure have to be imposed and taken seriously in order to
avoid serious injuries to the customers.
The most important consideration at this stage is to estimate the risk that may be involve in the
preparation up to the serving of the food.
PRINCIPLE 2: Identify critical control points.
A critical control point (CCP) is a point, step, or procedure in a food at which control can be applied
and, as a result, a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level.
This step is also known as the killing point of microorganisms if not prevent the rate of the bacterial
growth in order to avoid food borne illness.
The following are some examples of critical control points:

Receiving, cleaning, storing and preparing food items

Cooking, reheating and hot holding

Chilling, chilled storage, and chilled display

Receiving frozen items, freezing, thawing, preparing, cooking and then serving
There are many form of CCP in the food service establishment, however, the most commonly used is
the cooking, cooling, reheating, hot/cold holding.
In order to be easily understood, most establishment either hotel, resort, restaurant or any other food
service establishment do not refer CCP’s but rather as an SOP or Standard Operating Procedures.
Among of the common SOP’s in the food service establishment are the following;
Hygiene practice of employees

Washing hands after using the toilet

Wearing a clean chef uniform at work

Not reporting to work if having a cough or cold

Avoid touching nose, mouth, eyes, ears and hair while handling foods at works

Using handkerchief to catch a sneeze or cough when working to avoid microorganisms
contaminating food items
Controlling cross contamination
Using color coded chopping boards at work, among the commonly accepted practice in the

industry are the following;
o
Red chopping boards – used only for chopping and slicing raw meats.
o
Yellow chopping boards - used only for chopping and slicing raw chicken and poultry
products
o
Green chopping boards - used only for chopping and slicing raw vegetables and fruits
o
Blue chopping boards - used only for chopping and slicing raw fish and shellfish
o
Brow chopping boards - used only for chopping and slicing meats, fish, chicken, poultry
o
White chopping boards - used only for chopping and slicing breads and other pastry items
o
Separating raw products in the chiller or freezer from cooked food items
o
Storing cooked products on top of the freezer or chiller rather than putting them below raw
products, tendency will be that the dripping from the raw products will contaminate the
cooked food items below the refrigerator
Accepted hygiene practices when dealing with kitchen equipment
o
Properly and constantly disposing of garbage inside kitchen
o
Properly cleaning and sanitizing pots, pans and other tools and equipment inside the kitchen
o
Using stainless steel equipment and work surface effectively and efficiently clean these
areas
In order to identify the critical control point of any food service industry, the menu of the food item
should be properly studies in order to identify a critical point of producing the menu from purchasing
to serving. In order to be easily understood an easy example will be given below
Suppose that you owned or managed a food service establishment that serves fried chicken as
one of the many food items in the menu. Before you could serve the fried chicken to the guest for
consumption the following critical point should be taken into consideration.

Purchasing of the chicken
o It should be purchased from a reputable supplier to ensure that the chicken was healthy
and butchered according to the proper hygienic standards.
o It should be fresh and did not show signs of decomposition and spoilage

Receiving the chicken
o Check the temperature of the frozen chicken by inserting a thermometer in between two
frozen packages (it should register between 5 to negative 15 degree Celsius ideally).
o If the chicken comes in frozen it should not show signs of tear or breaks in the packaging.
o If the chicken comes in frozen it should not show signs of freezer burns.
o The frozen chicken inside the package should not show signs of earlier thawing as shown in
the gathered ice crystals with blood inside the packaging.
o The chicken should be clean and free from unwanted dirt and other impurities.

Storage of the chicken
o The chicken stored under the right storing temperature, if chilled it should be store to 5
degrees Celsius and below but not beyond negative 3 degrees Celsius.
o The chicken stored under the right storing temperature, if frozen, it should be stored
between negative 18 and negative 20 degrees Celsius.

Preparation of the chicken
o The frozen chicken should be thawed at the chiller and not at room temperature.
o The chicken should be prepared in batches and stored back in the freezer or chiller
before actual cooking.
o The chicken should be cooked to the proper doneness and correct temperature
depending on the method of cooking used.

Displaying and holding the chicken
o The chicken should be displayed in a very hygienic environment
o Proper heating in the chaffing dish should be strictly followed
o The chicken should not be stored beyong 4 hours in the temperature danger zone
o The display area should be free from dust and other particles that may contaminate

Serving the chicken
o
The chicken should be served immediately to the customer in a clean plate
o
The service staff should follow proper personal hygiene when serving (clean uniform,
washed hands, no coughing or sneezing when carrying food, etc.)
o
The service staff should follow proper hygienic practice when serving the chicken
(cutleries, plates and glass wares on the table should be cleaned and sanitized).

Cooling the chicken
o The cooling process occurs when there are leftover fried chicken in an open buffet. This
would happen with the intent of the establishment that the leftover chicken would again be
served on the following day or within the week if not re-cooked to form a new dish within
the time span stated above. In doing this safely the following considerations should be
taken into account.
o Make sure that the chicken had been totally cooled off, it would be ideal to put the chicken
in a tray to ensure that it had been quickly and uniformly cooled.
o Make sure that the chicken you put in the chiller are in a shallow container, and if possible
they had been blast freezed or blast chilled to avoid the contamination of microorganisms
in the temperature danger zone.

Storing cooled chicken
o
The chicken should be stored in a right temperature, if chilled the chiller temperature
should be no more than 5 degrees Celsius and if frozen, the freezer temperature should be
negative 15 degree Celsius or cooler.

Reheating the chicken
o
The chicken should be reheated quickly, the heating temperature should reach no less
than 100 degrees Celsius for no less than 15 minutes. This should be constantly stirred in
case if the chicken has gravy in order to ensure that the heat is evenly distributed on the
food item being heated.
PRINCIPLE 3: Establish a critical limit for each critical control point.
A critical limit is the maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological or chemical hazard
must be controlled at a critical control point to prevent, eliminate or reduce to an acceptable level.
There are 4 common items in the food service that are critical limit. These are the following;

Time – this refers to the length of time when the food is prepared, cooked and served to guest
inside the temperature danger zone. The critical limit is that it should not go beyond 4 hours at
the temperature danger zone from receiving, storing, thawing, preparation, cooking and
serving (if needed cooling and storing).

Activity – food items with a water activity of less than .80 discourages the growth of bacteria
that mostly cause food borne illness.

Temperature – a cooked food should be displayed with a temperature of 60 degree Celsius or
higher. This can be achieved by putting it in a hot holding area where the temperature is
controlled and constantly being monitored or at the chaffing dish where there is constant
heating below it. Should the food be in a chiller it should be more than 5 degree Celsius or
colder.

pH – this is the measure of alkalinity of acidity in a liquid. The pH of pure water is 7. Number
lower than 7 is high acid content and numbers above 7 indicates high alkaline. The higher the
acidity of the liquid the more it should be about 4.5 or below.
PRINCIPLE 4: Establish critical control point monitoring requirements.
Monitoring activities are necessary to ensure that the process is under control at each critical point.
Time, water activity, pH and temperature are the critical control points that are constantly being
monitored.
For instance the freezer or chiller temperature should be constantly monitored and the temperature
recorded as well as the time the monitoring had occurred. In doing this, any temperature fluctuation
can be monitored and corrected. In an instances that the temperature fluctuates, certain factors may
have caused among them might be;

Sudden mechanical or electronic defect encountered by the chiller or freezer in this case the
food inside should be quickly transferred to another freezer or chiller in order to avoid food
spoilage and food borne illness.

Food items being placed inside the chiller of freezer had not totally cooled off yet, thus its extra
heat is heating up chiller or freezer threatening the other food items inside.

Thick deposits of ice inside the freezer can also be a cause of temperature fluctuation, the
thicker the ice the more the temperature becomes uneven.
Lastly, worker responsible for checking critical control points should be properly tooled with
thermometers or probe, pH meters and others needed on order for them to be able to do their job
efficiently and accurately.
PRINCIPLE 5: Establish corrective action.
These are actions to be taken when monitoring indicates a deviation from an established critical limit.
The final rule requires a plant’s HACCP plan to identify the corrective actions to be taken if a critical
limit is not met. Corrective actions are intended to ensure that no product injuries to health or
otherwise adulterated as a result of the deviation enters public consumption.
In an instance that critical limits are not met, serious problems may be experienced. In order to avoid
this, the following should be observed.

Determine what went wrong – in an event that certain critical limit are not met, try to
determine immediately what had went wrong. Try to check the problem in order that you can
be able to immediately take corrective action. For instance, you noticed that the chiller
temperature is now 9 degree Celsius. Do not wait further or ignore the temperature fluctuation,
take corrective action immediately.

Take corrective action – in an event that something went wrong and you were able to
determine the problem, try to take corrective action as much as possible. In the above example,
try to take out all the food items in that chiller and immediately transfer them to another chiller.
Make sure that you inform the supervisor and all the employees that the chiller is not working
properly being fixed immediately.

Fix the problem
PRINCIPLE 6: Establish procedures to verify that the system is working properly.
Be certain that you would be able to verify that HACCP is properly working in your establishment.
Make sure that the critical limits that you had established in your system will be able to prevent,
eliminate or reduce the hazard to very acceptable standards. Since HACCP is a system wide activity,
you have to make sure that the system is properly working in your favour. It should be noted that little
changes can affect many activities in your system. Key persons and experts in your organization
should verify the system properly for at least twice a year.
PRINCIPLE 7: Establish an effective record keeping system that document the HACCP system.
In order to come up with an effective HACCP plan in your establishment, make sure that it is well
documented in a written form. The document school provide as much as possible enough information
about the hazards associated of certain food items or group of foods that you are offering should be
recorded with proper date and time.
HACCP storage guidelines are as follows:
DRY STORAGE

Never store pesticide or cleaning chemicals near any food item

Keep all storage areas clean and dry

Deliveries should be cleaned and stored immediately

Never allow suppliers to carry the deliveries inside, this may result in changing good deliveries
with bad ones

Always remember to keep hazardous foods away from the temperature danger zone always

Do not store foods near a wall as molds may grow on the wall and contaminate the food item

Always lock the storage are to keep insects, rodents, and other animals out of the storage are
particularly in the dry storage are.

Wrapped food items in tightly, in clean and moisture proof materials

Use racks in storing near the floor to avoid the food directly touching the floor

Never store food where there are water or liquid dripping

Use the First In, First Out method (FIFO)

As a general rule, never store any food item in direct sunlight

The storeroom should be well ventilated

Food should be stored in their original packaging as much as possible

Ideal temperature for dry storage is between 10 to 21 degrees Celsius
FREEZER

The temperature of the freezer should be about 18 degree Celsius or colder

Monitor and record freezer temperature frequently within the day

Clean the freezer at least once a week

Immediately close freezer door to avoid heat coming inside the freezer

Make sure that foods being stored in the freezer had been properly cooled

Never put food that is still hot inside the freezer

Never over stack freezer. An overloaded freezer would not freeze the food properly at a given
time

Do not mix food items inside the freezer. Store similar food items together

Immediately place frozen food inside the freezer upon inspection during delivery

To prevent freezer burn, wrapped meat products in cling wrap plastics
CHILLER

Chiller temperature should be 5 degree Celsius or colder but not colder than 0 degree Celsius
as this may be entering the freezing zone.

Chilled food should be stored immediately inside the chiller upon inspection during delivery

Never leave chiller door open for a long period of time

Store food at the same kind together, never mix them to avoid cross contamination

No standing water should be inside the chiller, constantly check the drain pipes if they are not
clogged.
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