HACCP Plan

A HACCP Plan: What Is It?

Steps and Examples for HACCP Plans

From planting, harvesting, and shipping to receiving, preparing, and serving, every final product you provide to your consumers goes through several phases. Potential risks to food safety that could make the ultimate consumer ill or causing injury exist in each of these phases. However, these risks can be avoided, diminished to safe levels, or even eliminated with the use of a HACCP Plan strategy. Continue reading to find out what a HACCP plan is and how to make your own.

In just a few short years, the field of food safety and consistency has advanced significantly. Our examples of how the consuming pattern of food has changed along with our methods of living. These developments have changed how food is created, produced, and cooked, as well as how it is moved and stored.

Governments, regulators, and industry sectors all have needs that must be met along with those of the global economy for businesses to remain competitive.

A HACCP Plan strategy is composed of seven principles. A description of each stage and a sample HACCP plan are provided below.

1. Performing risk analysis and conducting 

A hazard analysis is the first stage in creating a HACCP plan. This entails assessing potential risks that might appear when you are preparing your food.

Among the procedures that should be scrutinized while preparing food are:

• Serving non-cooked items like salads, fruit, and cold cuts
• Preparing meals for immediate consumption, such as grilling meat
• Prepared, cooked, held, cooled, reheated, and served soups, sauces, and chilies
• Simple to prepare and store foods like potato salad.

You must determine where biological, chemical or physical hazards are most likely to occur with the procedures mentioned above during the hazard analysis.

As an illustration, raw chicken breast is frequently prepared, cooked, and served all on the same day. If chicken is not cooked properly, there is a risk that bacteria will be found in the final product. A biological risk that could exist is bacteria.

2. Select the crucial safety controls

After examining potential risks, it’s critical to pinpoint any areas where hazardous contamination may develop. Find particular steps in the procedure where you may prevent, eliminate, or minimize dangers to safe levels at this moment.

What do you mean by Critical Control Point?

The period when you must apply control to get rid of potential risks to food safety is known as a critical control point or CCP.

Typical crucial control points are as follows:

• Meal delivery from your provider
• Keeping the food in storage before cooking
• Preparing and handling food
• Holding hot or cold food
• Meal preparation and reheating
• Delivering cooked food to another place
• Keeping food warm or cold while serving

The only way to completely eradicate or lower the number of bacteria to a level that is safe for consumption is to cook raw chicken breast. So, it is possible to classify boiling raw chicken as a CCP.

3. Set Important Limits

You must specify minimum and maximum requirements that must be fulfilled to eliminate or reduce the hazard to a safe level for each step that has been recognized as a CCP. By establishing critical limitations at each CCP, you can provide your personnel with clear, simple instructions on maintaining food safety.

Example: A raw chicken breast must be cooked for 15 seconds to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to kill microorganisms. The critical limit is a minimum of 165 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds, and the chicken breast can be cooked on the grill for the required time to achieve this critical limit.

4. Create Monitoring Protocols

You must give staff members a mechanism to verify that each limit has been reached after defining the crucial limit. The best method to pinpoint where, when, and with whom something might have gone wrong is to put monitoring measures in place.

Decide who will measure the essential limit and how frequently it needs to be documented to get started. This accomplishes several things, such as:

• If a deviation occurs, it returns the process to under control.
• Monitors the process and displays any recurring irregularities
• Provides proof in the form of paperwork.

The temperature at the thickest section of the chicken breast should be recorded using a probe thermometer that has been cleaned and sterilized. The minimum internal temperature for chicken grilled on the grill is 165 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds.

5. Implement corrective measures

A deviation occurs when a critical limit isn’t met during the procedure. Your team must be equipped with the skills and information necessary to take remedial action when a deviation arises and guarantee that the contaminated food never reaches the final customer.

6. Make sure the system is functional.

To make sure your HACCP plan is successful, periodically review and improve it. All of your data, paperwork, monitoring graphs, and analysis will be used in this step. They’ll assist you in determining whether or not your plan effectively minimizes, eliminates, or prevents risks to food safety.

To make sure the crucial limit for the chicken breast was met each time it was prepared, a manager can evaluate temperature monitoring charts in this phase after each shift change. Your employees can find trends and modify their entire procedure to further minimize food safety issues by taking a look at the temperatures that were recorded over time.

The following steps should be taken as corrective action:

• Figuring out what caused the deviation
• Making it right (if possible)
• Keeping track of the deviance

The chicken must continue to cook until it reaches the necessary temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds, for instance, if the dish is found to be undercooked after having been cooked for the recommended time after checking it with a thermometer. It is important to note this increased cooking time.

Keep Accurate Records and Documentation 

You can be more organized and respond to threats to food safety by keeping precise records. The final step in implementing a HACCP plan is creating processes for proper record-keeping. Spend some time creating a system that specifies who records what and how long records are kept on file.

A few different kinds of records to preserve are listed below:

• Logs of temperature
• Notes detailing the timing of corrective action
• Information regarding the upkeep and repairs made to the equipment Information about the supplier, including shipping bills and specification papers

For illustration, the temperature monitoring charts, comments on remedial measures, and receipts for the chicken are all retained for six months. The grill’s specification sheets and maintenance logs are retained for a year. This data can be utilized to validate and support the HACCP strategy in the event of any issues.