(FAO) and the WorldHealthOrganization(WHO) beganto providemember
countries with principles, guidelines and examples of food safety risk
assessments. Althoughthesedocuments are aimedto support governments in
developing food safety legislation, the principles of risk assessment, as
summarisedin Section20.2below, are equallyvalidfor the individualfood
processor.Moreover, the examples of risk assessmentprovidedby the CAC
contain manydetails that are of interestfor the individualfood processor,
althoughthe extension of these exampleassessmentsis well beyondthe scopeof
the risk assessments typicallycarried out by the foodindustry.
20.2 Quality management and risk assessment
20.2.1 Riskmanagement: HACCP and its validation
HACCP is the mostimportantfoodsafetymanagement programme around the
world. It is recommendedby the Codex Alimentarius Commission in the
General Principles of Food Hygiene (CAC, 1997), recognised by many
governments and regulatoryauthorities and encouragedby foodprocessors
and suppliers as a meansto enhance foodsafety. HACCP is a systematic and
scientifically basedprotocol that focuseson preventionof problems occurring.It
identifiesspecifichazards and measures for theircontrolto ensurethe safetyof
food.HACCP is basedon the applicationof sevenprinciples. Thereare, in
addition,a number of prerequisitesthat needto be accomplishedbefore the
applicationof the HACCP principles.Theseprerequisitesincludeassembling a
team thatwillassume the responsibility to developthe HACCP plan, and
obtainingknowledge aboutthe product, its intendedusesand all the processes
involved fromprimary production untilconsumption.The sevenprinciples are
summarisedbelow:
∑ Principle 1: Conducta hazardanalysis. The HACCP teamshouldlist all the
hazards that maybe reasonably expected to occurat eachstep fromprimary
productionuntilthe pointof consumption. Hazardis heredefinedas `a
biological, chemical, or physical agentin, or conditionof, foodwiththe
potentialto causean adversehealtheffect' (CAC, 1997).Moreover, the
HACCP teamshouldconduct a hazardanalysisto identify whichhazardsare
of sucha naturethat theireliminationor reduction to acceptablelevelsis
essentialto the production of safefood.The evaluation of hazardsshould
includethe following:
± the likelyoccurrence of hazards and severity of theiradverse health
effects;
± the qualitativeand/orquantitative evaluationof the presenceof hazards;
± survivalor multiplicationof microorganisms of concern;
± production or persistence in foodsof toxins, chemicals or physicalagents;
and
± conditionsleadingto the above.
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