HACCP standards
HACCP, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (risk analysis and management of critical control points), includes the implementation of a self-control system by companies to guarantee the safety of their food products and to avoid any health risks.
In the USA in 1959, NASA insisted that the Pillsbury Corporation, a food manufacturer, guaranteed that their food products were 100% safe for consumption in space. The company was working together with NASA and the US Army Natick Laboratories to design a concept covering all the requirements. Later this concept became the basis of the HACCP principles.
This preservative concept was then further developed together with NASA and in 1971 it was published and documented in the United States as “HACCP”.
It was only in 1985 that the plan was recommended by the US National Academy of Science for all food manufacturers. Since then, the system has been continually tested and further developed worldwide.
Today, HACCP is considered as a complete system for the management of food safety and the microbiological quality of foodstuffs. This method is used as such by many agricultural and foodstuff sectors. Furthermore, its application offers manufacturers the possibility to prove in writing that they produce food products which are systematically safe because if there is the slightest problem, they are able to take quick and effective actions to avoid a large batch becoming unsuitable for consumption threatening public health.
In 1993, the Codex Alimentarius was the first to bring thedefinitions and basic elements of the system into line on an international basis. This resulted in document ALINORM 97/13A, the Mixed Programme of the FAO, theFood and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and of the WHO, the World Health Organization with regard to food standards. The Codex Alimentarius is a UN Body drawing up standards on consumer health protection.
At the same time, the European Union also recognised that the protection of health was of primordial importance and startied taking action in this respect. Consequently, a series of directives about food hygiene was created. The principle of the identification and monitoring of the critical points were gradually included in the new texts.
The European legislation in this matter can be divided into a number of groups:
• The “horizontal” directive (93/43/EEC), containing general regulations applicable to all products and all steps which implicitly refers to the HACCP system.
• The “vertical” directives containing specific regulations for certain types of “high risk” products such as meat, poultry, fish products, diary produce, egg products, etc. These are all applicable, the oldest dating from January 1994.
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