The Safer Food System incl HACCP principles

The Safer Food System is an elearning course and downloadable ready-to-use FSMS system in one.

To give it it's full title, it is also called 'Implementing a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) incl HACCP Principles and it's available at Food Safety Course with HACCP now.

Food Safety and the current UK Law...

Since January 2006, a number of new food hygiene regulations have applied in the UK.

These comprise 'Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004' on the hygiene of foodstuffs, and 'The Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006', plus equivalent regulations in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland.

These now state that ALL UK food and drink businesses must put in place ‘food safety management procedures’ and keep up-to-date records of these. 

It's an elearning course created by Tribal Media.

The 7 Principles of HACCP

Principle 1 – Analyse hazards. Hazards are either physical, chemical or microbiological. This stage is about analysing and categorising the potential hazards within the business, ie the things that may affect food safety. More on this later.

Principle 2 – Identify the Critical Control Points (CCPs) using a decision tree. A CCP is when you cannot do anything further to make sure the food is safe to consume.

Principle 3 – Determine Critical Limits. Set target levels and tolerances. A critical limit for cooking would be min 75 degrees centigrade for at least 2 minutes. A critical limit for fridge temperature would be maintaining 1-5 degrees centigrade.

Principle 4 – Design a Monitoring System. This is keeping a check on all critical limits you have set. This would be regularly checking fridge temperature to check it is within acceptable limits, or temperature probing the chicken to ensure it has achieved a core temperature of 75 degrees centigrade or more.

Principle 5 – Decide upon Corrective Actions. This is having safe well thought-out procedures for dealing with situations when the monitoring has detected that critical limits have not been achieved. If your fridge on monitoring is above the set critical temperature limit, how do you deal with the situation? Is it safe to continue to use the food stored there?

Principle 6 – Establish Documentation. It's essential to the safe working of your system that you have the necessary documentation and the system is 'live' ie you are routinely recording the results of the monitoring etc. In the case of the fridge this would be recording the temperature on a fridge temperature monitoring form 3 times a day.

Principle 7 – Verify and validate. This is undertaking an initial verification or check of the system once it is ready and complete (ideally with your EHO), then continuing to review your procedures every month, or when something changes, eg you get a new supplier or implement a new dish.