Food Safety Managment

Food Safety Management


Food controls can be traced back many centuries, with well documented rules governing the sale of bread and beer promulgated in the Middle Ages. These earliest statutory controls were, however, directed toward prevention of revenue evasion rather than protecting ‘trader’ or ‘public’, and legislation in its present form is very much a product of the nineteenth century. This period saw the rapid development of food legislation in an attempt to remedy the widespread practice of adulteration. Whilst not a new phenomenon the rapid urbanization of this time vastly increased the numbers of people reliant on manufacturers and retailers. In the absence of effective control of food quality the opportunities for adulteration were tremendous and the potential profits substantial.

Food was often adulterated with harmful ingredients, tea for example was extended with sawdust or blackened with lead, and coffee had chicory added. The damage to public health and the scandals caused by adulterated foods created the conditions that led to the first of the modern laws to control food quality. The identification and growing understanding of microbial pathogens however was not developed until the latter part of the 19th century following the work of Pasteur. This paved the way for effective legislative control of food safety, which began with milk pasteurization and water chlorination, and continues today in the form of extensive food safety regulations.

In the 1950’s when NASA scientists were developing the first manned space program they faced the problem of how to ensure the safety of food eaten by the astronauts. Originally they were concerned with the physical form of the food itself and whether the astronauts would choke on the crumbs in zero-gravity, or if the food materials might drift into the delicate machinery on the spacecraft

NASA was seeking an approach through which they could achieve 100% assurance of food safety and soon realized that traditional end-product testing was not going to accomplish this. Given the aim of ‘zero-defects’ to be achieved, any system of random testing would lead to very high losses of product, uncertainty and inadequacy in achieving safety due to the non-uniform nature of contamination in food products. For end-product testing to be useful it would require analysis of 100% of the product. An alternative system of safety assurance rather than safety control was needed.

HACCP

Hazard Analysis critical Control Point is widely recognized in the food industry as an effective approach to establishing production, Sanitation and manufacturing practices that produce safe foods.

HACCP systems establish process control by identifying points in production that are most critical to food system, and determine how these should be monitored and controlled. HACCP has often been expanded to include quality parameters.

The key to successful HACCP is proper preparation and planning, including gaining commitment at senior level and ensuring proper allocation of resources, including for HACCP specific training. Training will ensure the correct application and maintenance of the system. The key elements needed to set up an effective management system:


Transfer or ownership of HACCP plan to operatives, supervisor, and managers
Training of operatives, supervisors and managers to implement HACCP
Maintenance of HACCP plan

The development of HACCP system involves a number of stages a number of stages, the first of which is to set up a team of relevant people.


Pre-Requisites

The plan or layout must be designed to achieve the smooth flow of operations, and equipments should also be designed to facilitate cleaning, maintenance and inspection

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP): This includes mechanisms in place to prevent cross-contamination through.

Supplier Quality Assurance: Having system in Place that allow confidence that supplier are producing and delivering safe foods consistently, based on criteria set by the purchasing company. Criteria may include product specifications of acceptable levels of contamination or that the supplier also operates a HACCP system and routine audits of suppliers.

Calibration: A system in place that ensure regular calibration of equipment, including monitoring equipment to ensure that such equipment is operating correctly

Good laboratory Practice: this includes the accreditation of systems used in the laboratory whether the laboratory is internal or external to the company. Other issues will include the training for staff, monitoring of staff performance, and building control into sample testing procedure.

Incident Management: The existence of system to be followed in the event of a serious incident. Such as a system would specify the actions to be taken by whom
What should happen to the affected production
Who should be informed and the procedures for investigation of the cause of the incident

Personnel and training: policies relating to the nature of the staff who should be employed to certain positions, the competence that they will need, and the training program available to develop, refresh and update such competencies. A policy may also include ways in which training needs are identified, including encouraging personnel to identify their own needs, mechanisms for establishing the effectiveness of training and maintenance of training records


Preventative Maintenance: A system in place that ensures regular preventative maintenance of premises and equipment. This may include contracts with pest control agencies to regularly audit premises for signs of infestations, as well as ensuring that such pests are not able to entre premises.