 Hello, I'm Tom Billy, Associate Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, or FSIS, of the United States Department of Agriculture. As you know, FSIS, the states, importing countries, and the regulated meat and poultry industries are working diligently to implement provisions of the Pathogen Reduction HACCP Final Regulation, which was published July 25, 1996. Since FSIS first proposed that HACCP be implemented in all meat and poultry processing establishments, we have been interested in providing technical assistance to industry, especially to small establishments. This video was prepared by our colleagues in Agriculture and Agri Food Canada. We think it does an excellent job of explaining HACCP principles and practices. Its use is not required, but we believe it can be very helpful. This film was reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Canada, in 1996. The USDA wishes to thank Agriculture and Agri Food Canada for making this informative film available to the U.S. meat and poultry industry. The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System, also known as HACCP, is a systematic and preventive method of ensuring food safety. HACCP was originally developed to guarantee the safety of food used by astronauts in space. It is now being adopted worldwide as a straightforward approach to food safety. The HACCP approach works with every kind of food production and can readily be tailored to any individual product or process. The advantage of using this system lies in the control it provides at all times over food safety in the processing plant, from receiving raw materials to shipping the final product. The HACCP system is based on seven principles, including identification of hazards in food production, control of the hazards at critical control points, and verification that the system is working properly. The strength of the system lies in its preventive nature. Potential food safety hazards are controlled throughout the process, eliminating hazards as they arise rather than trying to detect problems in the finished product. A critical control point, also called CCP, is any point or procedure in a food system where loss of control may result in an unacceptable health risk for the consumer. Agriculture Canada is encouraging the use of HACCP methods in food processing systems. This program is being developed in cooperation with the agri-food industry and other federal and provincial departments involved in food safety. Many federally registered processing companies have the elements of a HACCP system already in place. This system offers clear benefits, an exceptionally reliable guarantee of safety for consumers, an internationally accepted standard for export sales, a cost-effective way of reducing wastage and recalls, a program based on partnership involving all sectors of the agri-food industry. Before attempting to put a HACCP plan into place in an establishment, a number of prerequisite programs need to be developed, implemented, and thoroughly documented. These programs are premise control, including water control, receiving and storage control, equipment performance and maintenance control, personnel training, sanitation, including pest control, health and safety recall procedures. Once these prerequisite programs are satisfactory and well-controlled, the preliminary steps of the HACCP system can be initiated. The first step is to assemble the HACCP team within the establishment. The selection of the members is of utmost importance to ensure a complete and realistic program that will be understood and accepted by all. Management is a key factor in implementing the plan. The team will include people with the knowledge and expertise to develop a HACCP plan. It could include management, quality assurance personnel, experts in related fields such as microbiology, maintenance and production personnel. Inspection personnel may also contribute their expertise in matters of regulations and HACCP procedures. The second step is the gathering of information to acquire a complete understanding of the product and the production process in order to identify all potential hazards. This information includes product description, including product name, list of ingredients, packaging materials and important properties such as final pH, intended use of the product for example baby food or food for the elderly, shelf life, storage and instructions for use, process flow diagram and plant schematic diagram indicating product flow and employee traffic patterns throughout the plant. Finally, an on-site verification of these diagrams. Once these preliminary steps have been completed, we now have the information required to develop the HACCP system. The HACCP system is based on seven basic principles. They are identify the hazards and list preventive measures to control them, determine the critical control points, establish critical limits for each critical control point, establish procedures to monitor the critical control points, establish deviation procedures, establish procedures to verify that the system is working correctly and establish effective record-keeping systems. We shall now review these principles one by one. Hazard analysis is the first principle of the HACCP system. This step is of utmost importance since a faulty hazard analysis would inevitably lead to an inadequate HACCP plan. Hazards can arise at any step of food production, from growing, harvesting and dealing with raw materials and ingredients through processing and manufacturing and on through distribution, marketing, preparation and consumption of food products. Proper identification of biological, chemical or physical hazards is obviously important for food safety. Hazards can vary from one processing plant to another because of differences in the sources of ingredients, formulations, equipment and plant layout, preparation and processing methods, the duration of processing and storage, and the experience of plant personnel. Hazards can also vary inside a plant from one process to another for the same reasons as we have just discussed. Therefore a hazard analysis must be conducted on each existing type of product or process, on each new product and on any changes in raw material, product formulation, preparation and processing, packaging, distribution and intended use of the product. Hazard analysis is a five-step process. Review of the incoming material including ingredients and packaging material, evaluation of each step of the processing operations, observation of the actual operating practices, making accurate measurements of important process parameters and analyzing the measurements. In each case the analysis must consider biological hazards such as pathogens, viruses and parasites, chemical hazards such as residues from cleaning substances, antibiotics and heavy metals and physical hazards such as pieces of metal, glass or wood. Once all the hazards have been identified, the next stage is to determine the critical control points necessary to control these hazards. This is the second principle of the HACCP system. As previously stated, a critical control point is any point or procedure where loss of control may result in an unacceptable health risk. For example, a specified heating process applied for a prescribed time and temperature to destroy bacteria is a critical control point. Critical control points can occur at any stage of production where there is biological, chemical or physical contamination that must be eliminated or controlled. CCP's can include, for example, cooking, chilling and formulation control. Note that one CCP can control more than one hazard. Critical control points will be determined using the HACCP Decision Tree which was first developed by Codex Elementarius, an international working group. This decision tree consists of four questions used in logical sequence that help determine if any particular step in a process should be considered a CCP. These questions are, could a control measure be used by the operator to control the identified hazard? Is it likely that contamination with the identified hazard could occur in excess of the acceptable level or could increase to an unacceptable level? Is this process step specifically designed to eliminate or reduce the likely occurrence of the identified hazard to an acceptable level? Will a subsequent step eliminate the identified hazard or reduce its likely occurrence to an acceptable level? After having examined all potential hazards with the decision tree to determine where they can best be controlled, we may proceed to the third HACCP principle, establishing critical limits to ensure complete control of each CCP. These critical limits may be based on regulations, inspection manuals, operational codes or company policy. For each CCP, one or more critical limits will be established. Non-compliance to these limits may lead to a potential hazard. Critical limits may be set for parameters such as temperature and time of a thermal process, pH, preservation agents, residual chlorine and sensory perception of texture, odor and appearance. To ensure that the CCP remains within the critical limit specified, monitoring procedures must be established. This is HACCP principle number four. The monitoring system must be practical and efficient. It must help assess whether a CCP is under control and is within the critical limits established. Monitoring may be based on the following actions. Visual observation, such as inspection of incoming products, letters of guarantee from suppliers, monitoring specific processes and cooking charts, sensory evaluations such as the detection of abnormal odors and colors, chemical measurements such as pH, salt or sugar content and residual chlorine, or finally physical measurements such as the time-temperature combination of a thermal process. In addition to verifying the type of monitoring, the HACCP plan must specify the frequency and who is responsible for carrying out the monitoring. Choice of monitoring procedures is based on the nature of the CCP. Also, monitoring procedures should allow for rapid measurements and the results must indicate if the process is under control. The fifth HACCP principle consists of determining for each CCP, corrective actions to be taken in case a problem is detected. This step, allowing a quick reaction to any deviation, is one of the system's main strengths. The corrective action must eliminate any hazard resulting from a deviation and prevent further occurrence of such deviation. Corrective actions could include reworking the product, increasing the temperature or time of cooking, rejecting an incoming lot or having the situation assessed by experts. Principle number six, verification pertains to methods, procedures or tests required to confirm the validity of the HACCP plan and to assure that no hazards were overlooked during the HACCP plan development. Verification activities can involve unannounced inspections and collecting samples for analysis. Verification activities differ from monitoring. They are not usually used to make decisions on the acceptability of product lots but they may result in changing some elements of the HACCP plan. The HACCP system is based on a well-established program whose performance is regularly monitored. It is therefore essential to document all aspects of the program. This is the objective of the seventh and final HACCP principle. Records include CCP files, deviations, verifications, etc. They contain information on monitoring, corrective actions and verification activities at identified CCPs. Records also specify where and by whom the information was recorded. These records are the primary tool to ensure that the HACCP plan is working properly. Successful control of hazards depends on the care taken in establishing critical control points, critical limits and monitoring systems for each CCP, and corrective actions to be taken in case of deviations. Summing up, the main steps for the development and implementation of a HACCP plan are, first, implement the prerequisite programs, premises control, receiving and storage control, equipment performance and maintenance control, personnel training, sanitation and recall procedures, second, the preliminary steps, assemble the HACCP team, describe the product, identify the intended use, construct flow diagram and plant schematic, verify the diagrams on site, third, the HACCP principles, identify the hazards endless preventive measure, determine the CCPs, establish critical limits, establish monitoring procedures, establish deviation procedures, establish verification procedures, establish record keeping systems. As you can see, the HACCP system is a systematic and preventive method of ensuring food safety. It can evolve and adapt to changing needs. It clearly defines each and everyone's responsibilities. The development and implementation of the HACCP system is based on a partnership involving industry and agriculture Canada to better serve the consumers, who also have a role to play in food safety. The HACCP approach is a team effort. Its success requires a commitment on the part of each and everyone involved, working together to ensure a safe food supply and to maintain trade opportunities for the Canadian agri-food industry.