Have you checked your favorite restaurant out lately to see if they are employing HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points)? Chances are they aren’t. Why because its too hard, too cumbersome, too time consuming and the list goes on.
HACCP was developed years ago as a tool to improve food safety at the manufacturing level as well as for food service and catering. Using HACCP is a step in right direction to control food borne diseases.
We in the food industry must constantly work on the improvement of food safety, and this is even more true today as we source product not only locally but globally.
Some freighting facts about food borne disease in the United States alone are:
- Â Each year 76 million people get some form of food borne disease.
- Â 320,000 of those are hospitalized.
- Â 5000 die.
- Â 1 out every 100 hospitalized today is from contaminated food.
- Â 1 out of every 500 deaths in the US is the result of contaminated food.
HACCP consist of 7 principles:
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 1. Hazard Analysis, microorganism, chemical and physical
 2. Identify the Critical Control Points (CCP) in food preparation
 3. Establish Critical limits for preventative measures.
 4. Establish procedures to monitor CCP.
 5. Establish the corrective action to be taken when a critical control point limit has been exceeded.
 6. Establish systems to verify that HACCP system is working.
 7. Establish effective record keeping systems that document the HACCP’s systems.
HACCP creates a complete system, a plan for:
 1. Corrective action
 2. Recording system
 3. Verification system.
Does food service implement it? Does your favorite restaurant have a HACCP program? Probably not because it is too cumbersome and time consuming for the small business, not to mention the man hours required to maintain it.
What is interesting is that in the UK they have developed a new HACCP system for the food service and catering business with great success - the Salford Method (developed at Salford University)
They advocate eliminating all the jargon and making it simple and understandable. Show visuals, if you can show washing hands visually then you can show other steps. Simplify the documention and corrective actions (the recording process.) To learn more visit http://www.e-haccp.org.uk/haccpforcaters.htm
Perhaps its not the answer but it definitely is a step in the right direction. Have you ever gone into the kitchen?
 What languages do they speak? Can they understand the normal HACCP verbiage or would it be much more simplified if visuals are use so that all can understand. The answer is clear.
I hope to see a similar step here in the United States.
Let’s make food safe.
references:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=785916 – The Hang-up with HACCP: The Resistance to Translating Science into Food Safety Law
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/haccp.html
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Technorati Tags: Noon International, food safety, food borne disease, HACCP, Salford
