Introduction
Hygiene GMPs, such as personal hygiene, good housekeeping and cleaning and
disinfection, are established to ensure that contamination of foodstuffs from the
processing environment (e.g. environmental surfaces, food processing equip-
ment, people, condensation, cleaning fluids, the air, etc.) is minimised and
controlled. Monitoring and verifying that these GMPs are effective is thus
essential for food product safety and quality.
It is fundamental, of course, to construct a manufacturing environment, select
appropriate food processing equipment and environmental materials and adopt
personal hygiene practices that can be intrinsically controlled by hygiene measures.
Taking cleaning and disinfection as an example, food processing equipment and
environmental surfaces must inherently be capable of being cleaned to an
acceptable level. In addition, it is necessary to have some understanding as to how
deficiencies in equipment or surface design, together with changes due to
production practices and wear, will affect such cleanability. Equally, the selection
of appropriate cleaning equipment and chemicals along with the design of a
suitable cleaning and disinfection programme is an essential prerequisite.
The control of hygiene GMPs should follow the same principles as adopted
by HACCP plans for the food product. Again taking cleaning and disinfection as
an example, `critical control points' (CCPs) could be identified as the number of
cleaners needed, detergent and disinfectant concentrations, water temperature
and pressures and contact times. Such CCPs can be monitored before or during
the cleaning and disinfection programme, and if out of specification, would
negate the requirement for further assessment as the programme would not have
been undertaken optimally and would need to be rectified.