Principles of a HACCP

1.  Conduct food safety hazard analysis while preparation and production of food material in commercial kitchens.

There are 3 hazard categories:

• Biological (bacteria / virus)
• Chemical (poisonous substances)
•  Physical (foreign objects)

2. Identify crucial managing points to manage the above mentioned 3 types of hazards. The very common point in any commercial kitchen is heating, cooling and serving food product. Make use of equipment with good standard in order to make sure that safety is given more importance while preparing food. Also remember that HACCP is designed to cover all necessary steps in processing food, right from harvest to consumption. Even if your restaurant does not involve in each and every process, you should know the problem which occurs before the product comes to your doorstep.   

Also ensure properly whether you know all your food suppliers and their followed food procedure.

3. Create critical limits when the food passes through a critical control point

Example: Cooked food should reach 140 degree Fahrenheit.

4. Create and establish a system that monitor critical limits and make sure whether they met. Thermometers are the main component to make sure that the food reaches 140 degree. A data logger has the capacity to monitor temperature fluctuations for long period in freezers/ refrigerators. Whatever may be the situation. The critical limit should be logged and quantified to understand in case the critical points you addressed during hazard analysis are met.

5. Follow procedures to face problems in case critical limits are not met. The point of establishing critical limit in critical point during food preparation is to find potential hazards immediately. If the system functions regularly and properly and finds the problem you should have appropriate procedures to meet them.

6. Create and implement an effective documentation system for all HACCP programs which has the record of data like time, temperature and problem. Without these documents no one can identify potential hazards in your safety program

Health and safety documentation is must and best practice of your HACCP program.  

Many modern food safety equipment has come into practice like data loggers (which can be directly connected to a PC and the temperature can be loaded automatically into the database).using these kind of technology saves your time and keeps your safety program more effective.