HACCP and self-checking in practice — how to manage the critical points

You already know the rules about hygiene and traceability from your education. What ties it all together in practice is HACCP — an American abbreviation for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. According to the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, every quality control program in a food business must be based on HACCP principles, and that applies to you as a sausage maker too, even though your part of the chain often comes early in production.

§What is a critical control point?

A critical control point abbreviated CCP is a place in the process where there is a real risk that something can go wrong for food safety — and where you can actively do something to prevent or reduce the risk. Typical examples of critical control points in food production are heating and cooling but in a casing cleaning company it could for example also be about ensuring that preservation — salting — is carried out correctly so the product cannot spoil during transport and storage.

§The seven principles — applied to daily life

• 011. Risk analysis: map what can go wrong in the process from raw material to finished product.
• 022. Find the critical control points: point to the specific places where control really makes a difference.
• 033. Set limit values: decide what is acceptable — for example a specific temperature or salt time.
• 044. Monitor the points: measure and note continuously so deviations are detected immediately.
• 055. React with corrective action: if a point exceeds the limit, you should know what to do — immediately.
• 066. Verify the system: check regularly whether the self-inspection actually works as intended.
• 077. Document everything: written inspection checklists are proof that the system has been followed.

§Monitoring — who, how and how often

Part of the practical work with self-monitoring is establishing clear monitoring procedures: who should measure, how should measurement be done — for example with an insertion thermometer — and how often, for example every other hour. The purpose is to detect deviations in time before they become a problem in the finished product. This is not something you figure out yourself from day to day — it is in your company's self-monitoring programme and it is your task to follow it to the letter.

§Not everything is a CCP — about OPRP

Not all parts of self-control are critical control points in the strict sense. Much of what you do every day — thorough cleaning, correct work clothes, separation of clean and unclean zones — instead falls under what is professionally called an operational prerequisite programme (OPRP): general, good hygiene habits that support food safety without being a single, measurable control point in itself. The distinction is important to understand because a CCP requires a fixed limit value and a fixed monitoring procedure, while an OPRP is about maintaining good, general practice in everyday life.

§Food Authority supervision

When the Food Authority comes to inspect, it's precisely the company's risk analysis, self-control program, and documentation of compliance that get checked. The more consistently you and your colleagues fill in the control sheets in daily work, the easier it is for the company to document that food safety is in order—and the less risk there is that a single error becomes a big issue.

As new in the trade the system may seem like a lot of paperwork on top of the practical handiwork. But think of it differently: self-inspection is the way you and your colleagues can prove to yourselves each other and the authorities that you have things under control — even the day something actually goes wrong and you need to quickly see where and why.