Setting up a food-safe hygiene process

How to comply with HACCP and ISO 22000?

What is HACCP and what does it mean for a food company?

What is HACCP?

When preparing food and drinks, working hygienically is a prerequisite for guaranteeing food safety for consumers. Companies that are active in the food sector are therefore obliged by law to comply with established hygiene regulations and to work in accordance with HACCP guidelines. HACCP is a food safety system that prevents the safety of food from being compromised. In order to comply with this, food companies are obliged to draw up an HACCP food safety plan. A food safety plan is drawn up in accordance with the European Hygiene Regulation and is based on the 7 basic principles of HACCP.

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System.

H: Hazard = A hazard that may be present in a product and can subsequently pose a threat to the health of the consumer. Think of bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, chemicals and physical hazards such as glass, metal etc.

A: Analysis = Analysing possible hazards. An assessment must be made of the risks consisting of the combination of the risk of danger and the seriousness of the consequences for public health.

CCP: Critical Control Points = Points in the process that need to be kept under control in order to prevent or reduce a hazard to an acceptable level.

How does HACCP work for the food industry?

This means that food companies should look for critical points that affects the safety of food and drink products that are handled by the company. This includes, among other things:

  • Identifying and analyzing potential risks within the production process
  • Identifying points in the production process where certain risks may occur and establishing   acceptance limits
  • Repeating the above at regular intervals in the process
  • Recording activities in a written report that can be made available to third parties if requested.
  • Food processing establishments are under an obligation to establish, implement, maintain and review appropriate safety procedures. 
All possible risks and associated risk management measures must be described in an HACCP plan. This is the only way to guarantee the food safety of products.

Elpress cleaning process

 

Setting up an HACCP plan or applying an industry-related hygiene code?

When a company produces, processes or distributes food, it is obliged to draw up a process- or business-related HACCP plan, which will be assessed by a relevent law authority. Drawing up an HACCP plan, however, is not something that can be regulated at the drop of a hat. Drawing up such procedures requires specific knowledge and time. This can be a major challenge for smaller companies, such as bakers, butchers, the hospitality industry and care institutions. For this reason, so-called hygiene codes have been created (in some countries). 

A hygiene code is a general and practical handbook drawn up by trade and sector organizations for a specific sector. It's not allowed to work with a hygiene code in all European countries. In the Netherlands, the hygiene code is for example well known. The manual contains specific HACCP guidelines for that sector and may be used as a replacement for an HACCP plan. The hygiene code is therefore officially recognized and allows smaller businesses to easily comply with the legislation. Every three to five years, the government evaluates the hygiene code and revises it where necessary. 

Always check if your country works with industry-related hygiene codes! When this is the case the next step is to make sure that your company is falling within the definitions of a certain industry that has a hygiene code.

Advantages of a hygiene code

If a company can work according to a hygiene code, then there are a number of advantages:

  • The identification of hazards and the drawing up of control measures no longer need to be carried out because this has already been laid down in the code;
  • Important dangers are not overlooked because they have already been identified;
  • The code may be used to replace an HACCP plan. This saves a lot of work, and therefore  time and money;
  • Companies only need to use those parts of the Hygiene Code that are relevant to their business operations.

 

Hygiene code or HACCP plan?

Specific hygiene codes have been drawn up for various sectors, such als poultry slaughterhouses and cutting plants, butchers' shops, AGF retailers, fish retailers, bread shops and confectioners' shops. However, when a company has to deal with process steps that are not described in any hygiene code, it is obliged to set up its own food safety system in the form of an HACCP plan.

What does working in a demonstrably food-safe manner involve?

Demonstrable food safety means that a company can demonstrate in practice that products are handled in a responsible and safe manner. It can be demonstrated that all relevant basic conditions and process requirements from the Hygiene Code are met in practice

Whitrepaper Setting up a food safe hygiene process

 

Download the whitepaper

Fill in the form and get access to the full free whitepaper.