HACCP in Meat Plants
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:
- Identify any hazards that must be prevented eliminated or reduced
- Identify the critical control points (CCPs) at the steps at which control is essential
- Establish critical limits at CCPs
- Establish procedures to monitor the CCPs
- Establish corrective actions to be taken if a CCP is not under control
- Establish procedures to verify whether the above procedures are working effectively
- Establish documents and records to demonstrate the effective application of the above measures
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:
| PLAN | |
|---|---|
| Plan what needs to be done to maintain food safety and write it down. It is particularly important to:
|
|
| Hazards | Microbiological, Chemical, Physical |
| Controls | Good Hygiene Practices Maintenance, Cleaning, Pest control, Training, Personal hygiene, Traceability, Waste Management, Wrapping & Packaging, Transport |
| Operational hygiene controls Raw Materials, Animal welfare & transport, Slaughter, Dressing, Storage, Cutting, Processing | |
| Documentation | HACCP plans, Staff instructions, Monitoring and Corrective action procedures, Daily records |
| DO | |
| Do what you planned to do to maintain food safety. | |
| Documentation | (see above) |
| CHECK | |
| Check that you are doing what you planned to do to maintain food safety and write down what was checked and when. | |
| Supervision Monitoring Verification incl. Micro testing Review |
Documentation (see above) |
| ACT | |
| Act to correct any food safety problems and write down what has been done about the problem and when. | |
| Corrective actions | Documentation (see above) |
Hazard
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.
Controls
Food 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 below).
Documentation
Documentation 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 below).
Food Safety Management (FSM) Diary for Meat Producers
The new FSM 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 below).
Further guidance
The Food Standards Agency has also produced the following guidance material for meat plant operators:
- The Meat Plant HACCP Manual/CD-Rom – a training guide about HACCP principles and their application - see HACCP Manual and Training below
- Meat Industry Guide (MIG) – a guide to the legislation, which includes
- HACCP Chapter (see pages 469-550) with:
- HACCP plan template
- A Generic HACCP plan (selected steps for slaughter and cutting)
- A short guide to completing a HACCP Plan – explains how to use the HACCP Plan template
- HACCP Chapter (see pages 469-550) with:
Meat Plant HACCP Guidance Pack - contains:
- A short guide to completing a HACCP Plan
- Meat Industry Guide HACCP Chapter (including HACCP Plan templates and Generic HACCP Plan (selected steps for slaughter and cutting)
- Model Documents
- Food Safety Management Diary
Copies of Guidance Material
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 Mina Hirani on 020 7276 8335.
Related links
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HACCP Manual and Training
See details on the Meat Plant HACCP Manual and Training.
Pilot plant study
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.
Microbiological criteria
See details on Microbiological criteria for the Meat Industry.