Principles of Food Sanitation

The Role of HACCP in Sanitation 109

and documentation and to avoid dilution of
the HACCP program effectiveness. CCPs
must be carefully developed and documented
and must address only product safety.
Food operations may differ in the risk of
hazards and the points, steps, or procedures
that are CCPs. Differences such as the
process, layout, equipment, products manu-
factured, and ingredients incorporated
determine whether a CCP exists. Although
general HACCP plans may serve as a guide,
each operation should be evaluated before
the assignment of CCPs and development of
an HACCP plan. In addition to CCPs, non-
food safety concerns may be addressed at
control points. CCPs should be kept to a
minimum, as an SOP can sometimes be
incorporated instead of a CCP. However, if a

CCP exists, an SOP may not be an accept-

able substitute.

3.Establish critical limits for preventive

measures associated with each identified

CCP.Acritical limitis one or more pre-

scribed tolerance limit that must be met

to ensure that a CCP effectively con-

trols a microbial health hazard to an

acceptable level. Information about

critical limits is essential for safe con-

trol of a CCP. Each preventive measure

has associated with it critical limits that

serve as boundaries of safety for each

CCP. The critical limits for preventive

measures may be specified for time,

temperature, physical dimensions, pH,

Aw, etc. Development of these critical

Is the step specifically designed to eliminate or reduce the likely

occurrence of a hazard to an acceptable level?

Q1.

YES

Q2.

Could contamination with identified hazard(s) occur in excess of

acceptable level(s) or could these increase to unacceptable level(s)?

Will a subsequent step eliminate identified hazard(s) or reduce

the likely occurrence to an acceptable level?

*Proceed to next step in the described process

Q3.

Q4.

Could preventive measure(s) exist for the identified hazard?

HACCP: Principles and Application

Modify step, process or product.

Is control at this step necessary for safety?

NO

NO

NO

NO CRITICAL CONTROL POINT

Not a CCP

Not a CCP

Not a CCP

STOP*

STOP*

STOP*

YES

YES

YES

YES

Figure 7–1CCP decision tree.Source:Pierson and Corlett (1992).