HACCP: A Beginner’s Guide for Food Safety Managers
HACCP — which stands for hazard analysis and critical control points — is a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating, and controlling food safety hazards.
It’s built on seven fundamental principles, each of which builds upon the information that was obtained from the previous principal.
If the first step isn’t followed correctly, allowing some hazards to go unidentified, the rest of the plan will not be effective.
The success of a HACCP system depends on educating and training management and employees on their role in keeping food safe.
Food establishments have different hazards based on their menu, customers, equipment, and processes, so your HACCP plan should be unique to your operation.
This article explains what you need to know about the seven HACCP principles and how to apply them at your food establishment as a food safety manager.

The seven HACCP principles
Before you develop your HACCP plan, consider:
- Who will be involved in the plan?
- The food, the ingredients, and the processing methods you use
- The type of consumers you serve, whether it’s the general public or a susceptible population
- The flow of food through your establishment and the processing involved
Here’s an overview of the seven HACCP principles:

Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis
The purpose of a hazard analysis is to identify food safety hazards that may cause illness or harm if they are not effectively controlled. This means you must understand the risks associated with the food itself, as well as how people, equipment, and methods you use affect the food.
Evaluate each hazard you identified and whether it requires control to prevent or reduce illness or harm. Some hazards may already have controls.
For example, if you prepare raw ground beef, you need to consider the risk of E. Coli bacteria in beef. The likelihood and severity of this hazard are high. If uncontrolled, E. Coli can cause severe illness or death.
Principle 2: Determine critical control points (CCPs)
A critical control point (CCP) is the step at which you can control something to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard. They are located at any step where hazards can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to acceptable levels.
You will identify the points in your processes where each hazard can be controlled. For example, a common CCP to reduce E. Coli in ground beef is cooking.
Principle 3: Establish critical limits
A critical limit is the maximum or minimum value to which a hazard must be controlled at a CCP to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard. Think of the critical limit as food’s last line of defense. If the critical limit isn’t met, you can’t guarantee the food is safe.
Critical limits may be based on factors like temperature and time. For example, the critical limit for cooking ground beef is for the internal temperature to reach 155ºF. It’s not good enough to say that cooking ground beef until it turns brown is unacceptable. There may be more than one CCP for each hazard.
Principle 4: Establish monitoring procedures
Monitoring provides a method to ensure your CCPs are met. For example, specify who takes the temperature of the ground beef as it cooks as well as when, how, and where they will record the temperature.
Principle 5: Establish corrective actions
If you identify the loss of control at a CCP, you need to take corrective action to prevent or reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses.
Specify what is to be done if a correction action is needed and who is responsible for implementing the correction action.
For example, if the ground beef is only 145ºF, continue cooking it until it reaches 155ºF. The correction action won’t always be this simple. You may have to discard food that doesn’t reach the established critical limit.
Principle 6: Establish verification procedures
Verify that your HACCP plan is working according to plan. Establish record-keeping and documentation.
Record-keeping and documentation allow you to reflect on what’s working and what’s not. This should include observing employees’ activities, such as taking temperatures. Verification can also be calibrating the thermometers and checking the temperature logs.
Principle 7: Establish record keeping procedures
Records provide documentation that appropriate corrective actions were taken when critical limits were not met. In other words, is the system working as it should?
It should include a summary of the hazard analysis, the HACCP plan, any supporting documentation used to establish CCPs, critical limits, or other procedures, and records created from implementing the plan, such as temperature monitoring logs and corrective action and verification records. This step is necessary if you must have a HACCP plan.
Summary
HACCP consists of seven principles, each of which builds upon the information obtained from the previous principle. For this reason, following the steps in correctly and in order is necessary to ensure all hazards are identified and controlled effectively.
The bottom line
HACCP stands for hazard analysis and critical control points. It’s a commonsense technique to control food safety hazards by preventing hazards before they occur. It’s also useful for catching and correcting hazards that do occur.
The hazard analysis component of HACCP is about identifying potential food hazards, while the critical control points are about creating processes that control those hazards.
This makes HACCP similar to active managerial control in that both systems seek to identify hazards and take steps to prevent or control them.
While not mandatory for all establishments, implementing a HACCP system can significantly enhance food safety.

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