Food Standards Agency
Sunday 27 July 2008
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What is RSS?Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), is used to descibe an internationally recognised way of managing food safety and protecting consumers. It is a requirement of EU food hygiene legislation that applies to all food business operators except farmers and growers.
EU Regulation 852/2004 (Article 5) requires food business operators, including meat plant operators to implement and maintain hygiene procedures based on HACCP principles. This legislation replaces the Meat (HACCP) Regulations 2002.
HACCP
The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system is internationally accepted as the system of choice for food safety management. It is a preventative approach to food safety based on the following 7 principles:
The HACCP approach provides a systematic way of identifying food safety hazards and making sure that they are being controlled day-in, day-out. In short this involves the following steps:
The seven principles aim to focus attention on the identification and control of microbiological, as well as chemical and physical food safety hazards during production. The hazard assessment and the regular monitoring of critical control measures must be documented to provide the basis for audit checks and may provide evidence of due diligence in the event of legal action.
In meat plants HACCP plans will focus on control measures that can reduce the likelihood of contamination of meat from microbiological hazards, such as Salmonella, E.coli O157 and Campylobacter, during production. These meat-borne pathogens can be carried by healthy animals and cannot be detected by sight or smell.
Although thorough cooking kills most bacteria, meat may be handled by lots of people before it is cooked and the bacteria will spread to other foods that may not be cooked. Bacteria multiply very quickly, especially in warm conditions. Retailers and consumers need to take precautions, including temperature controls and keeping raw meat and cooked meat and other ready to eat foods separate.
Conscientious implementation of HACCP principles by plant operators demonstrates their commitment to food safety; improves employee awareness of their role in protecting consumers, and emphasises management's responsibility for the safe production of meat.
Back to topFood safety management is achieved by a combination of good hygiene practices (legal requirements for which are in Regulation 852/2004) and operational hygiene procedures (legal requirements for meat production are in Regulation 853/2004).
Guidance on these legal requirements may be found in the Guide to Food Hygiene and Other Regulations for the UK Meat Industry (see Meat Industry Guide).
Back to topDocumentation is an important part of food safety management. Records should be easy to keep up to date as they provide evidence of the operator's thinking and decisions. Where visual monitoring is necessary, for example to ensure carcases are free of visible faecal contamination, records can be limited to 'exception reporting'. This means making a record only when there is a problem or something unusual happens and noting the corrective action taken as a result. See Model Documents and Food Safety Management Diary below.
Model Documents
This covers food safety management issues such as maintenance, cleaning, staff training and temperature checks (see Model Documents).
The new 2008 diary has been produced for meat producers to use, if they wish, to keep important information about the hygienic operation of their food business for the year.
Printed copies of the diary are available (free of charge) for meat plants newly approved by the FSA (see Food Safety Management Diary for Meat Producers).
Back to topThe Food Standards Agency has also produced the following guidance material for meat plant operators:
Meat Plant HACCP Guidance Pack - contains:
Hard copies of all the guidance material listed above are available on request by emailing MeatIndustryGuide@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk .
Alternatively, if you would like a CD-ROM of the Meat Plant HACCP Guidance Pack (free of charge), this is available on request by emailing the same address above.
Should you have any further queries, please contact Miss Wing-Man Chan on 020 7276 8384.
Back to topDownload pdf
(pdf 550KB) Food Safety Management Diary for Meat Producers 2008Download pdf
(pdf 854KB) Meat Industry Guide (MIG) Guide to Food Hygiene and Other Regulations for the UK Meat IndustryDownload pdf
(pdf 3MB) Model Documents Logging/monitoring activities for meat producersDownload pdf
(pdf 194KB)See details on the Meat Plant HACCP Manual and Training.
Starting in November 2001, the Agency undertook a study to assess the extent of changes to working practices and resource costs from the implementation of HACCP procedures in a number of small to medium sized meat plants.
See details on Microbiological criteria for the Meat Industry.
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