Food Safety Program

Food safety is defined as a finished product that does not contain a food hazard when used according to its intended use. It is a set of actions and systems designed to minimize the occurrence of food safety hazards within a food production, processing and preparation facility.

The food safety program focused in the identification of hazards and management of the hazards in all business functions is the most important means to ensure food safety within a food retail business.

Food safety must be its priority and this priority should be defined in a written food safety policy statement that addresses all possible hazards establish control measures and specifies corrective actions.

If a food business is required to have a food safety program, it must examine all of its food handling operations in order to identify those food safety hazards that might reasonably be expected to occur and prepare a written safety program to control these hazards.

The program must include controls for the identified safety hazards, ways to monitor the controls are working and steps to be taken when a hazard is not under appropriate control.

Food safety standards may be established by governments, industry groups and individual companies.

All the activities in a food safety program have the ultimate goal of preventing the physical, chemical and biological contamination of a product so the food would not cause harm or sickness to the consumers who eat it.
Food Safety Program 

Contrasting Quality Assurance and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system

Most company that start Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point program are pleasantly surprised to find many of the control programs already in place can, with modification, be utilize directly. However, there are major differences between a conventional quality assurance (QA) system and HACCP as it is now conceived in term of seven principles.

Quality Assurance. Most Quality Assurance programs are designed to discover rather than prevent problems. Little detailed information is collected on line to be used fro analysis. Verification procedures the system are not generally used other than testing the end product, and very few QA system include detailed instructions on what to do if product is out f specifications.

HACCP. HACCP systems are based on the prevention of problems rather than discovery after the fact. Each comprises a highly structured and disciplined approach to control, which depends on accurate information and data collection. Appropriate data and other information that the QA programs have will be used, however. The effective way to bring the two together is to start with their similarities and common approaches.

In converting from conventional QA to HACCP, it is generally no necessary to add personal to the program. The major effect of HACCP is to:

*Focus the control effort on the important issues

*Delegate responsibility

*Enforce documentation and action Under HACCP programs every one is responsible for control, not just the QA system and its personnel.
Contrasting Quality Assurance and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system