that are permitted in crack and crevice treat-
ment during an interim period of 6 months,
while registrants apply for label modification.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Through the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act, a national program was
designed to control solid waste disposal. The
act authorizes the EPA to recommend guide-
lines in cooperation with federal, state, and
local agencies for solid waste management.
It also authorizes funds for research, con-
struction, disposal, and utilization projects
in solid waste management at all regulatory
levels.
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points
Although other voluntary programs have
been developed in the United States and
throughout the world, the HACCP concept
is the approach that is being emphasized.
After this concept was developed jointly
through the Pillsbury Company, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the U.S. Army Natick Labora-
tories in the late 1960s adopted this concept
for use in the space program. Recognizing its
application in other areas, the HACCP con-
cept was shared with the food industry at the
1970 Conference for Food Protection. Since
then it has been adopted as a voluntary or
mandatory program to assure food safety
through the identification, evaluation, and
control of biological, chemical, and physical
hazards in a food facility. A large number of
these hazards are clearly affected by the
effectiveness of sanitary measures adopted.
Although HACCP was initially voluntary,
several regulations that have been previously
mentioned were developed by FDA and
USDA that require HACCP plan develop-
ment, implementation, and maintenance in
specific sectors of the food industry and have
changed the status of this program from
voluntary to mandatory (seafoods and
fishery products, juice, and meat and poul-
try). Because of the importance of HACCP
this subject is be discussed in detail in
Chapter 7.Establishment of sanitary practices.........................................................
Sanitation, good manufacturing practices,
and other environmental and operating con-
ditions necessary for the production of safe,
wholesome food are known as prerequisite
programs. These prerequisite programs pro-
vide the foundation for HACCP and are a
vital component in a company food safety
assurance system. So, the design and devel-
opment of this entire system in a food facil-
ity begins with the establishment of basic
sanitary practices.
The employer is responsible for establish-
ing and maintaining sanitary practices to
protect public health and maintain a positive
image. The problem of establishing, imple-
menting, and maintaining sanitary practices
within the food industry is certainly a chal-
lenge. The sanitarian or person in charge of
this important area must assure that the san-
itary practices keep low-risk potential haz-
ards from becoming serious hazards that
could cause illness or injury. The sanitarian
is both the guardian of public health and the
counselor to company management on qual-
ity and safety issues that are influenced by
sanitary practices.
A large food processing company should
have a separate food safety department on
the same organizational level as production.
It should have a separate food safety depart-
ment on the same organizational level, as
production or research, that is responsible
for food safety at all operating plants. A san-
itation department or team should exist in a
plant on a level with other departments. In
a large organization, sanitation should beSanitation and the Food Industry 13