Food safety refers to the conditions
and practices that preserve the quality of food to prevent contamination and
food borne illnesses. Proper handling and preparation of food greatly reduces
the risks of getting food to be “unsafe”. Quality standards are usually related
to improving the safety of food products .The entire food chain must take
responsibility to produce safe food to consumers.The mandate for food safety is
shared by various government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and
also cuts across different tiers of government ;Federal, State and Local.Ministries: Health ,Agriculture &
Water Resources &Commerce and Industry Department: Fisheries, Livestock. Agencies: NAFDAC & SON. LGs: Primary Health Care Development.
Food safety and food quality can be controlled
in the food and allied industries by developing and implementing in house food
safety and quality programs.
The traditional method of examining
microbiological safety, storage stability and sanitary quality of a food, testing
representative portions (or samples) of the final product for the presence of
some pathogens (such as Salmonella) or the number of level of certain
pathogens (e.g. Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus),
different microbial groups, aerobic
plate counts, psychotrophic counts, ,thermoduric counts , yeasts and moulds ,
indicator organisms -e.g. coliforms and enterococci per gram or millitre of
product has an obvious disadvantage. The traditional method does not provide
close to 100% assurance about Safety, Stability,
Sanitary quality of the products.
Programs that are used to enhance
food safety and quality include Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)
and Sanitation.
Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) refers to
the minimum sanitary and processing requirements necessary to ensure the
production of safe and wholesome food and other products like dietary supplements.
It has requirements for Personnel, Building and Facilities, Equipment and Utensils,
Production and process control.
Sanitation: means "Protection from
Contamination˝ .sanitation is a dynamic and ongoing function. It involves
Cleaning and Sanitizing.
Hazard Analysis Critical Control (HACCP) is a
structured, preventive approach to ensuring food safety (Fernandez, 2009). It provides
a means to identify and assess potential hazards in food production and
establish preventive control procedures for those hazards. It involves a
detailed appraisal of a production process and control of known/potential
hazards at certain critical points in the process. HACCP is proactive rather than reactive. It is risk based and does not rely on end
product testing.
Hazards are not evenly distributed and can be missed in sampling. HACCP Starts
from the beginning of the process: Receiving
of ingredients, packaging through process steps to final product and shipping.
Central to the HACCP system is the
identification of a number of critical control points (CCPs). These are stages
in the process at which effective action can be taken to prevent or counteract
the effects of a particular hazard.
Monitoring is carried out at CCPs
to ensure that processing continues within predetermined tolerance limits (in
terms of quality, contamination etc.).
ADVANTAGES OF HACCP
q Reduction in product loss
q Increase in product quality
q Better control of product
inventory
q Consistency in product
preparation
q Increase in profit
q Increase in employee awareness
and participation in food safety
HACCP Plan – A document prepared in accordance with the
principles of HACCP to ensure control of hazards that are significant for safety
in the segment of the food chain under consideration. Workers using HACCP plan
systematically examine each step in a process flow and ask the following questions:
q Does a potential hazard exist in
a particular step in the process (from ingredients, food handlers, equipment, and
process environment)?
q Can you eliminate or prevent
those potential hazards through preventative measures (thermal processing,
refrigeration etc.)?
q Since it may be difficult to
monitor for specific hazards, can you instead monitor preventative measures
(time, temperature, filter pore size etc.)?
q Analyze the hazards
q Identify/determine the critical
control points.
q Establish critical limits for
critical control points (CCPs).
q Establish procedures to monitor
the critical control points.
q Establish corrective actions to
be taken when monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been met.
q Establish procedures to verify
that the system is working properly
q Establish effective record
keeping for documentation.
STAGES IN HACCP include
1.
Identification and Analysis of
the all significant hazards i.e. biological, chemical and physical hazards that need to be
controlled to assure food safety. Hazards associated with growing, harvesting, raw
materials and ingredients, processing, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, preparation
and consumption of the food.
2: Determination of the Critical Control
Points:
·
A critical
control point is an operational step in a food preparation process at which
control can be applied
·
This is
essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level
·
After
identifying the significant hazards, the team establishes preventive measures
to control the identified hazards
·
The team
identifies areas or points in the flow of a food product with critical limits
that must be met to control the identified hazards
·
If loss of
control occurs at a CCP, it likely will lead to an unacceptable health risk
3 : Establish Critical Limits for Critical Control Points
·
Each
critical control point must have boundaries or limits that define safety
·
Critical
limits are parameters that must be achieved to control a food safety hazard
·
Upper/lower
limits for CCPs are important
·
CCP limits
are usually based on Time, Temperature, pH and Moisture content of a food.
4: Establish
procedures to monitor CCPs
·
Once CCPs
and critical limits have been determined one needs to keep track of the CCPs as
the food flows through the operation
·
Monitoring
involves making direct observations or measurements to see that the CCPs are
kept under control by adhering to the established critical limits
·
Monitoring
ensures that the process is in control
·
Monitoring
can also identify processing or formulation problems that could lead to food
safety risks
5: Establish Corrective Actions
·
While
monitoring CCPs, occasionally the process or procedure will fail to meet the
established critical limits
·
This step
establishes a plan for what happens when a critical limit has not been met at a
CCP
·
Corrective
action may include changing the process, reprocessing or discharging the product.
6: Establish
Verification Procedures
·
This
principle is about making sure that the system is scientifically – sound to
effectively control the hazards
·
In addition
this step ensures that the system is operating according to what is specified
in the plan
·
Designated
individuals must periodically make observations of employees monitoring
activities, calibrate equipment and temperature measuring devices, review
records/actions and discuss procedures with the employees
·
All of these
activities are for the purpose of ensuring that the HACCP plan is addressing
the food safety concern and if not, checking to see if it needs to be modified
or improved
7: Establish a Record
Keeping System
·
There are
certain written records or kinds of documentation that are needed in order to
verify that the system is working
·
These
records will normally involve the HACCP plan itself and any monitoring,
corrective action or calibration records produced in the operation of the HACCP
system
HOW DO YOU CONDUCT A HAZARD ANALYSIS?
The purpose of hazard analysis is to develop a list of food
safety hazards that are reasonably likely to cause illness or injury if not
effectively controlled
The process of conducting a hazard analysis
involves two stages namely
1-HAZARD IDENTIFICATION
·
Hazard
identification is a brain storming session
·
It focuses on identifying the food safety
hazards that might be present in the food given the food preparation process
used
·
the handling
of the food, the facility and general characteristics of the food itself
2-HAZARD
EVALUATION
·
Each
potential hazard is evaluated based on the severity of the potential hazard and
its likely occurrence.
·
The purpose
of this stage is to determine which of the potential hazards listed in stage
one of the hazard analysis warrant control in the HACCP plan
·
Severity is
the seriousness of the consequences of exposure to the hazard.
Benefits of HACCP
Consumers
-Reduced risk
of food borne illness
-Increased awareness of basic hygiene
-Increased
confidence in the food supply chain
-Improved quality of life (health &
Socioeconomic)
Industry
-Increased
consumer and/or government confidence
-Reduced
legal and insurance cost
-Increased
market access
-Reduction in
production cost (reduced recall/wastage of food)
-Improved
product consistency
Government
-Improved
public health
-More
efficient and targeted food control
-Reduced
public health cost
-Trade
facilitation
- Increased
confidence of the community in food supply
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