HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL CONTROL POINT (HACCP) SYSTEM

Transcription

1 The HACCP Inspection/Food Audit HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL CONTROL POINT (HACCP) SYSTEM The HACCP system was originally designed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and is used by the food industry around the world to help increase food quality and to reduce food borne illness. The HACCP system helps to find problems with food handling, correct problems and educate staff about food safety. Your Public Health Inspector will use the HACCP system when inspecting your food premises. If HACCP audits are to take place in your facility your Public Health Inspector will arrange to meet with the food service supervisor and/or manager. The purpose of this consultation is to determine the nature and complexity of the food preparation. The consultation may include the following: review of menu items review of recipe procedures identification of food suppliers verify the number of certified food handlers reason for and nature of food safety strategies plan for HACCP audits a determination of the need for food handler training/certification During the HACCP audit, your Public Health Inspector will devote much of the audit to observing food handlers preparation of food - in particular, the critical control points that can reduce the likelihood of food borne illness from occurring. The best way to do this is for your Public Health Inspector to observe food handlers prepare a menu item during important stages in the food preparation process. The Public Health Inspector will then be able to make suggestions and help you focus in on areas where you can improve the food preparation process to prevent contamination, bacteria growth and food poisoning.

2 Developing your own HACCP Plan You may wish to develop your own HACCP plan. The HACCP system is a seven-step system. The seven steps are: Step 1: Assessing Food Safety Hazards Step 2: Identifying Critical Control Points Step 3: Establishing Standard Operating Procedures Step 4: Monitoring Critical Control Points Step 5: Taking Control Points Step 6: Setting Up an Effective Record-Keeping System Step 7: Verifying Your System is Working

3 The following gives detailed information about each of the seven steps. Step 1: Assessing Food Safety Hazards The question to ask at this step is: Where are food safety problems most likely to occur? 1. Identify menu items that contain hazardous foods. Hazardous foods are the foods usually implicated in food borne outbreaks. Examples include: cooked poultry, beef, veal, pork, ham, fish, other seafood, mixed salads, cooked rice, egg dishes and pureed foods. Hazardous ready-to-eat foods are considered to be especially high risk if they have been mixed, sliced, or blended in the same equipment used for the preparation of raw food products, even if the equipment is adequately cleaned and sanitized between food preparations. 2. Draw a flow chart for that menu item. The term flow of food refers to the steps food items take as they move through your facility from receiving to service. A flow chart is a diagram of the food preparation steps for a specific food item from receiving through to serving. The internal temperature of the food, potential points for cross contamination, methods of cleaning and sanitizing, hygiene observations and duration of process could be included in the flow chart. 3. Identify food safety concerns (hazards) that could develop in your recipe ingredients during each part of the flow of food. Potential food hazards can generally be grouped under three categories: 1. lack of personal hygiene 2. cross contamination and 3. time/temperature abuse The identification of unsafe food temperatures, unhygienic practices and situations that could lead to cross contamination such as improper cleaning and sanitizing of food contact surfaces must be corrected.

4 Step 2: Identifying Critical Control Points Critical Control Points (CCPs) are those points in food preparation where proper food handling can reduce or eliminate harmful bacteria or other contaminants. Important Critical Control Points (CCP s) to Monitor with Hazardous Food: Product Flow CCP s to Monitor Source Use pasteurized dairy products Buy meat and poultry from federally and provincially inspected establishments Do not use cracked eggs Do not use spoiled food Storage Keep food at 4 C (40 F) or colder Freeze food to -18 C (0 F) or colder Separate raw and cooked food Store cooked food above raw food Store ready-to-eat food above raw food Thawing In a refrigerator unit at 4 C (40 F) or colder Under cold running water, or In a microwave oven only when the food will be cooked immediately Food Preparation Do not allow food to remain in the danger zone for more than a total of 2 hours Wash hands frequently, especially after using the washroom, after handling raw food and before handling ready-to-eat foods Wash and sanitize all surfaces which food has touched between each use Internal Food Cook whole poultry to 82 C (180 F) Cooking Cook poultry, poultry products, ground poultry and poultry stuffing to 74 C Temperature (165 F) or hotter Cook pork products to 71 C (160 F) Cook ground meat to 71 C (160 F) Cook other hazardous foods to 74 C (165 F) or hotter Hold for service Hot hold food at 60 C (140 F) or hotter Internal Food Cooling Temperature Reheating Cooked Foods Hold cold food at 4 C (40 F) or colder Cool cooked food to serve at a later time from 60 C (140 F) to 20 C (68 F) in 2 hours or less Cool cooked food to serve at a later time from 20 C (68 F) to 4 C (40 F) in 4 hours or less Reheat cooked foods quickly to original cooking temperature.

5 Examples of critical control points include: final internal cooking temperature final internal reheating temperature final cooling temperature hot and cold holding temperatures The question to ask at this step is: Can a food handler control or eliminate the food safety hazard? If you can answer yes to this question, then it is a CCP. A CCP must be something you can measure or observe such as a final food cooking temperature. CCPs usually involve food cooking time and temperature as well as food handler health and hygiene, cross-contamination and cleaning and sanitizing. Step 3: Establishing Standard Operating Procedures These are your procedures to ensure safe food handling in your facility. Standard operating procedures should be based on food safety facts and laws and be as specific as possible. Think of SOPs as the requirements that must be met to keep food safe at each step in the flow of food. These are the routine procedures that must be followed throughout food preparation, similar to routine practices in infection control. SOPs that can be measured include: cooking cooling reheating holding temperatures and time SOPs that can be observed include: handwashing cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and food contact surfaces.

6 Step 4: Monitoring Critical Control Points Monitoring involves checking to make sure that your CCP standards are being met. The questions to ask at this step are: What food will be monitored? How will the food be monitored? Who will monitor the food CCPs? How often will the food CCPs be monitored? What food temperatures, cooking, cooling, reheating and holding times need to be recorded? Where and when should CCPs be recorded? For example: monitoring hot holding of beef stew What food: beef stew in the steam table How to monitor: with a clean and sanitized probe thermometer Who: chef or prep cook How often: every half hour while food is in the steam table What to record: temperature and time of beef stew to be recorded on log sheet Step 5: Taking Corrective Action If a CCP standard is not met, corrective action must be taken. The question to ask at this step is: What should a food handler do if the critical control point limit or standard operating procedure is not met? A corrective action must be established for each critical control point and standard operating procedure. Examples of corrective actions include: Rejecting a shipment Calling a supervisor or manager for advice Cooking food for a longer period of time Moving or covering the food to prevent cross-contamination Discarding the food

7 Food handlers washing their hands at critical times Reducing the time the hazardous food is in the temperature danger zone Sanitizing work surfaces and utensils at critical stages of food preparation Step 6: Setting Up an Effective Record-Keeping System The question to ask at this step is: What records are needed to show that food is being prepared safely? Records should show that critical control points and standard operating procedures are being monitored. Keep written records; simple; easy to understand; easy to use and; within reach Examples of what you can do for good record keeping: Develop a HACCP recipe binder. Include the CCPs, SOPs, required monitoring and temperature recording as well as corrective actions in the recipe for each menu item. You may wish to use charts for recording: Refrigerator temperatures at specific times Final cooking temperatures and time Holding or displayed food temperature and time Cooling temperature and time Reheating temperature and time Step 7: Verify the Food Safety System is Working The questions to ask at this step are: Is the HACCP system working for you? Is it helping to identify, prevent and correct problems with food handling? Is it helping with employee training? Does anything need to be changed?

8 It may help to review your records, review public health inspection reports and listen to employee concerns when deciding what needs to be changed. Reference: Ministry of Health Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point Protocol, October APIC Text of Infection Control and Epidemiology. APIC 2 nd edition Jan 2005; Vol. II: 58:2,58:9