Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point System - Region of Peel

PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
The HACCP Inspection/Food Audit
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL CONTROL POINT
(HACCP) SYSTEM
The HACCP system was originally designed by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) and is used by the food industry around the world to help increase food
quality and to reduce food borne illness. The HACCP system helps to find problems with food
handling, correct problems and educate staff about food safety.
Your Public Health Inspector will use the HACCP system when inspecting your food premises. If
HACCP audits are to take place in your facility your Public Health Inspector will arrange to
meet with the food service supervisor and/or manager. The purpose of this consultation is to
determine the nature and complexity of the food preparation. The consultation may include
the following:
• review of menu items
• review of recipe procedures
• identification of food suppliers
• verify the number of certified food handlers
• reason for and nature of food safety strategies
• plan for HACCP audits
• a determination of the need for food handler training/certification
During the HACCP audit, your Public Health Inspector will devote much of the audit to observing
food handlers preparation of food - in particular, the critical control points that can reduce the
likelihood of food borne illness from occurring. The best way to do this is for your Public Health
Inspector to observe food handlers prepare a menu item during important stages in the food
preparation process.
The Public Health Inspector will then be able to make suggestions and help you focus in on
areas where you can improve the food preparation process to prevent contamination, bacteria
growth and food poisoning.
Peel Public Health - Take Control Guide 2011

PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
Developing your own HACCP Plan
You may wish to develop your own HACCP plan.
The HACCP system is a seven-step system. The seven steps are:
Step 1: Assessing Food Safety Hazards
Step 2: Identifying Critical Control Points
Step 3: Establishing Standard Operating Procedures
Step 4: Monitoring Critical Control Points
Step 5: Taking Control Points
Step 6: Setting Up an Effective Record-Keeping System
Step 7: Verifying Your System is Working
Peel Public Health - Take Control Guide 2011

PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
The following gives detailed information about each of the seven steps.
Step 1: Assessing Food Safety Hazards
The question to ask at this step is:
Where are food safety problems most likely to occur
1. Identify menu items that contain hazardous foods.
Hazardous foods are the foods usually implicated in food borne outbreaks. Examples
include: cooked poultry, beef, veal, pork, ham, fish, other seafood, mixed salads, cooked
rice, egg dishes and pureed foods.
Hazardous ready-to-eat foods are considered to be especially high risk if they have been
mixed, sliced, or blended in the same equipment used for the preparation of raw food
products, even if the equipment is adequately cleaned and sanitized between food
preparations.
2. Draw a flow chart for that menu item.
The term flow of food refers to the steps food items take as they move through your
facility from receiving to service.
A flow chart is a diagram of the food preparation steps for a specific food item from
receiving through to serving. The internal temperature of the food, potential points for
cross contamination, methods of cleaning and sanitizing, hygiene observations and
duration of process could be included in the flow chart.
3. Identify food safety concerns (hazards) that could develop in your recipe ingredients
during each part of the flow of food.
Potential food hazards can generally be grouped under three categories:
1. lack of personal hygiene
2. cross contamination and
3. time/temperature abuse
The identification of unsafe food temperatures, unhygienic practices
and situations that could lead to cross contamination such as improper cleaning and
sanitizing of food contact surfaces must be corrected.
Peel Public Health - Take Control Guide 2011

PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
Step 2: Identifying Critical Control Points
Critical Control Points (CCPs) are those points in food preparation where proper food
handling can reduce or eliminate harmful bacteria or other contaminants.
Important Critical Control Points (CCP’s) to Monitor with Hazardous Food:
Product Flow CCP’s to Monitor
Source Use pasteurized dairy products
Buy meat and poultry from federally and provincially inspected
establishments
Do not use cracked eggs
Do not use spoiled food
Storage Keep food at 4°C (40°F) or colder
Freeze food to -18°C (0°F) or colder
Separate raw and cooked food
Store cooked food above raw food
Store ready-to-eat food above raw food
Thawing In a refrigerator unit at 4°C (40°F) or colder
Under cold running water, or
In a microwave oven only when the food will be cooked immediately
Food Preparation Do not allow food to remain in the danger zone for more than a total of 2
hours
Wash hands frequently, especially after using the washroom, after handling
raw food and before handling ready-to-eat foods
Wash and sanitize all surfaces which food has touched between each use
Internal Food
Cook whole poultry to 82°C (180°F)
Cooking
Cook poultry, poultry products, ground poultry and poultry stuffing to 74°C
Temperature
(165°F) or hotter
Cook pork products to 71°C (160°F)
Cook ground meat to 71°C (160°F)
Cook other hazardous foods to 74°C (165°F) or hotter
Hold for service Hot hold food at 60°C (140°F) or hotter
Internal Food
Cooling
Temperature
Reheating Cooked
Foods
Hold cold food at 4°C (40°F) or colder
Cool cooked food to serve at a later time from 60°C (140°F) to 20°C (68°F) in
2 hours or less
Cool cooked food to serve at a later time from 20°C (68°F) to 4°C (40°F) in 4
hours or less
Reheat cooked foods quickly to original cooking temperature.
Peel Public Health - Take Control Guide 2011

PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
Examples of critical control points include:
• final internal cooking temperature
• final internal reheating temperature
• final cooling temperature
• hot and cold holding temperatures
The question to ask at this step is:
Can a food handler control or eliminate the food safety hazard
If you can answer “yes” to this question, then it is a CCP. A CCP must be something you
can measure or observe such as a final food cooking temperature.
CCPs usually involve food cooking time and temperature as well as food handler health and
hygiene, cross-contamination and cleaning and sanitizing.
Step 3: Establishing Standard Operating Procedures
These are your procedures to ensure safe food handling in your facility. Standard operating
procedures should be based on food safety facts and laws and be as specific as possible.
Think of SOPs as the requirements that must be met to keep food safe at each step in the flow
of food. These are the routine procedures that must be followed throughout food preparation,
similar to routine practices in infection control.
SOPs that can be measured include:
• cooking
• cooling
• reheating
• holding temperatures and
• time
SOPs that can be observed include:
• handwashing
• cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and food contact surfaces.
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PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
Step 4: Monitoring Critical Control Points
Monitoring involves checking to make sure that your CCP standards are being met.
The questions to ask at this step are:
• What food will be monitored
• How will the food be monitored
• Who will monitor the food CCPs
• How often will the food CCPs be monitored
• What food temperatures, cooking, cooling, reheating and holding times need to be
recorded
• Where and when should CCPs be recorded
For example: monitoring hot holding of beef stew
What food: beef stew in the steam table
How to monitor: with a clean and sanitized probe thermometer
Who: chef or prep cook
How often: every half hour while food is in the steam table
What to record: temperature and time of beef stew to be recorded on log sheet
Step 5: Taking Corrective Action
If a CCP standard is not met, corrective action must be taken.
The question to ask at this step is:
What should a food handler do if the critical control point limit or standard operating
procedure is not met
A corrective action must be established for each critical control point and standard operating
procedure.
Examples of corrective actions include:
• Rejecting a shipment
• Calling a supervisor or manager for advice
• Cooking food for a longer period of time
• Moving or covering the food to prevent cross-contamination
• Discarding the food
Peel Public Health - Take Control Guide 2011

PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
• Food handlers washing their hands at critical times
• Reducing the time the hazardous food is in the temperature danger zone
• Sanitizing work surfaces and utensils at critical stages of food preparation
Step 6: Setting Up an Effective Record-Keeping System
The question to ask at this step is:
What records are needed to show that food is being prepared safely
Records should show that critical control points and standard operating procedures are being
monitored.
Keep written records;
• simple;
• easy to understand;
• easy to use and;
• within reach
Examples of what you can do for good record keeping:
Develop a HACCP recipe binder. Include the CCPs, SOPs, required monitoring and temperature
recording as well as corrective actions in the recipe for each menu item.
You may wish to use charts for recording:
• Refrigerator temperatures at specific times
• Final cooking temperatures and time
• Holding or displayed food temperature
and time
• Cooling temperature and time
• Reheating temperature and time
Step 7: Verify the Food Safety System is Working
The questions to ask at this step are:
Is the HACCP system working for you
Is it helping to identify, prevent and correct problems with food handling
Is it helping with employee training
Does anything need to be changed
Peel Public Health - Take Control Guide 2011

PEEL PUBLIC HEALTH
SECTION 7-2
INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL RESOURCE GUIDE
HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL POINT SYSTEM
It may help to review your records, review public health inspection reports and listen to
employee concerns when deciding what needs to be changed.
Reference:
Ministry of Health Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point Protocol, October 2008.
APIC Text of Infection Control and Epidemiology. APIC 2 nd edition Jan 2005; Vol. II: 58:2,58:9
Peel Public Health - Take Control Guide 2011