The 10-Point Safety Program: A Comprehensive Approach to Food Safety

The 10-Point Safety Program is a meticulous framework designed to ensure the highest standards of food safety. It is modeled after a system implemented by a leading cereal food company, aimed at guaranteeing the safety and quality of food products from production to distribution. Each point of the program addresses a specific aspect of the food safety process, creating a comprehensive and systematic approach to hazard control.

1. Specifications: This point underscores the importance of detailed specifications in food production. Specifications provide complete descriptions and requirements for ingredients, storage conditions, processes, packaging, labeling, handling, and distribution. By setting clear and precise specifications, companies can maintain consistency and quality in their products, ensuring that every step of the production process meets the highest standards.

2. Safety Analysis: A thorough hazard analysis is crucial for identifying potential hazards in the food system. This analysis forms the basis for establishing control points, which are critical for preventing, eliminating, or reducing food safety risks. By conducting a rigorous safety analysis, companies can proactively address potential issues before they escalate into significant problems.

3. Purchasing Requirements: Ensuring that all ingredients and equipment meet strict specifications is essential for maintaining food safety. Companies must purchase from approved suppliers who adhere to these specifications, thereby guaranteeing the quality and safety of the raw materials and equipment used in production.

4. Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP): The HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system integrates GMPs, covering hygiene, sanitation, and good housekeeping practices in all areas of production. This includes receiving, processing, packaging, and shipping, as well as maintaining clean and sanitary employee and public facilities. Adhering to GMPs helps prevent contamination and ensures a safe production environment.

5. Physical Systems Hazard Control: This involves creating a schematic of the production flow, detailing the equipment, piping, and accessory equipment such as storage tanks. By clearly mapping out the production process, companies can identify and control physical hazards, ensuring that each component of the system operates safely and efficiently.

6. Recall System: Implementing a robust recall system is essential for tracing products through the distribution system. Products should be coded, and invoices handled in a manner that allows for quick and efficient tracing of all ingredients used in any production batch. This system ensures that any defective or contaminated products can be swiftly removed from the market, protecting consumers and the company’s reputation.

7. Contract Manufacturing: Contract manufacturers must adhere to the same rigorous standards as the contracting company, including implementing HACCP. This ensures consistency and safety across all production sites, regardless of whether they are company-owned or outsourced.

8. Facilities Auditing: Regular audits of all facilities ensure compliance with company standards and monitor critical control points (CCPs). Audits help identify deviations and ensure that corrective actions are taken, maintaining the integrity of the food safety system.

9. Customer Complaints: Customer complaints provide valuable feedback and should be monitored closely by the review committee and QA managers. Regular monitoring helps identify recurring issues and areas for improvement, ensuring that customer concerns are addressed promptly and effectively.

10. Incident Reporting: All deviations from normal operations must be reported according to a prearranged plan. Incident reporting allows for a comprehensive view of operational performance and helps identify areas that may require attention. It ensures that all stakeholders are aware of potential issues and can take appropriate action to maintain food safety.

In conclusion, the 10-Point Safety Program is a robust framework designed to ensure food safety at every stage of the production process. By adhering to these principles, companies can maintain high standards of quality and safety, protecting both consumers and their brand reputation.
The 10-Point Safety Program: A Comprehensive Approach to Food Safety

Facilities auditing in food safety

Auditing is a key management system by which periodic checks are made at various levels of depth to ensure ongoing conformity to company policies and procedures and to develop corrective actions where deficiencies are found.

All facilities must be audited on a periodic basis to ensure that they are operating to company standards and that all of the CCPs are being monitored as required, with all deviations and dispositions of deviations recorded.

Facilities or functional areas can be selected by a number of methods; for example, random selection, potential hazards, or the importance of the facility in terms of business considerations.

Example of facilities assessment are *Check walls, floors, ceilings and other surface for stardard of construction, design, maintenance and cleanliness. *Check that the illumination is appropriate, the temperature is sufficiently low if needed and the air is free of moisture and dust.

Audits of facilities that store and handle reactive materials will be essentially the same as process safely audits for other facilities handling hazardous materials.
Facilities auditing in food safety

What is the meaning of chemical hazards?

Chemical hazard are chemicals that can get into food by improper storage of chemical or chemical containers or by using chemicals improperly.

Generally, industrial pollutants are unintentional contaminants of foods,, even if regulated, may be difficult to control.

Some toxic chemical compounds can occur naturally in foods and in the environment.

Chemical hazards can cause food borne disease and the consumer health. This includes naturally occurring substances, such as allergens, and toxins and contamination of food with chemicals substance, their residue or their degradation products at levels that can harm the consumers.

Chemical hazards include:
• pesticides
• food additives and preservatives
• cleaning and sanitizing supplies
• toxic metals that leech through worn cookware and equipment
• lubricants used on equipment

The above chemicals must be approved by federal agency before they can be legally used. If a chemical leaves a residue in food, the cognizant agency is responsible for establishing a tolerance level – the amount of residue that can legally remain in or on raw and processed foods.
What is the meaning of chemical hazards?

What is meant by food expiry date?

Processed food is easy to use because it can be let for long periods of time. However, note that even processed food will deteriorate with time. Therefore, it is very important to check the date of packaging when buying processed food.

The shelf life of a food must be indicated by the words ‘best before’ in conjunction with the expiry date and conditions for optimum storage of the food.

Commonly used for highly perishable foods such as meats and dairy goods, the expiry date is the last date on which the product should be consumed.

To address the quality of food products at expiration date, a study was carried out to measure the quality by using microbiological and sensory test. The study showed that most of the tested products were edible at expiration date of durability, although some of them contained high concentration of spoilage and natural microorganisms.

Most food is wasted between the retailing and consumption phases because of a bad match between supply and demand. The intervening factor is food waste as a result of expiry dates.
What is meant by food expiry date?

Specifications in food safety program

All manufactured ingredients and products have defects no matter how well a organization attempts to prevent product defects. Food safety program is to ensure compliance with laws and regulations in the development of food specification.

A specification is an explicit set of requirements to be satisfied by a material, product or service. Should a material, product or service fail to meet one or more of the applicable specifications, it may be referred to as being out of specification.

Finished product specifications of ingredient/product manufacturers are more easily established because the manufacturer should develop the internal specification and provide it to the user in order to enable their compliance to the product purchased.

Nonconforming materials and products may be considered any material or product that does not meet specifications or that for whatever reason (damage, leaking, code date, etc) is not acceptable for use or shipment to the customer.

These items must be clearly labeled as hold and stored in a segregated area that protects them from inadvertent use or shipment.
Specifications in food safety program

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 

Food Safety and Consumers

Food safety is of paramount importance both for suppliers and consumers of food. Food safety assurance is therefore the primary objective for all quality assurance schemes, both statutory and voluntary consuming considerable company resources.

The Food Safety Act is designed to protect consumers from unsafe food as well as from food fraud, but food safety and other food standards cannot be separated completely.

Mislabeled products can constitute safety hazards as in the case of sheep’s milk (declared) yoghurt containing a proportion of (undeclared) cow’s milk.

This may threaten the life of a consumer with a serious cow’s milk allergy. Generally, in the eyes of consumers, food safety is an implicit quality attribute, i.e. they would not specifically demand “safe” food in shop or restaurant.

However, where a consumer does not have trust in their supplier, they will try to take charge of food safety, safety assurance themselves.

A customer at a butcher’s may decide not to purchase cooked meats there, e.g., if the shop fails to demonstrate effective procedures for the prevention of cross contamination of those meats via raw meats. 

Aspects of food quality besides safety are largely determined by individual preferences. The range and diversity of foods available to consumers today is considerable.

In fact, there are few foods that cannot be obtained by the individual with the time and money to pursue and acquire them. This means in principle, each consumer can be matched with his or her ideal foods. Whilst most would not go to such lengths, most people have their own individual mental lists of products that they would avoid under all circumstances.

As far as individual supermarkets are concerned, some might question exactly what level of product differentiation there really is.

On the other hand, it may be difficult for consumers with strongly held ethical values to choose food accordingly, e.g., meat from what they would perceive as cruelty-free production systems.

In this case, the difficulty lies with the poor state of the consumer information and advice systems that exist in the food area, and with the associated issue of food labeling.
Food Safety and Consumers

Chemical hazard in food industry

A food safety hazard can be defined as any factor present in food that has the potential to cause harm to the consumer.

Food safety hazards may be biological, chemical or physical object.

Chemical hazards can cause food borne disease and the consumer health. This includes naturally occurring substances, such as allergens, and toxins and contamination of food with chemicals substance, their residue or their degradation products at levels that can harm the consumers.

Some chemicals added to foods also make them unsafe. One potential chemical hazard is an excess quantity of sodium nitrite. This potential hazard was recognized decades ago when controls were established by the USDA to minimize this risk.

Other chemical hazards which should be considered include agricultural chemicals such as pesticide, herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and other animal drugs, antibiotics, sulfa drugs, cleaning and sanitizing agents, oils and greases.

The above chemicals must be approved by federal agency before they can be legally used. If a chemical leaves a residue in food, the cognizant agency is responsible for establishing a tolerance level – the amount of residue that can legally remain in or on raw and processed foods.

Under some circumstances, chemical hazards can be eliminated or reduced through processing operations. For example, washing and peeling of agriculture produce is a very effective method for eliminating or reducing residues of agricultural chemicals.

Establishing safe food handling practices to avoid chemical hazards in the food supply, again like biological and physical hazard controls, will increase not only the safety of the food supply but also the margin of profit, reduce legal liabilities and promote good will to improve consumer confidence.
Chemical hazard in food industry

Food Preservation

Food preservation is the application of techniques to prevent or minimize undesirable changes in food.

Preservation aims either to destroy or inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms in food by making an environment unsuitable for them.

From the nutrition viewpoint, food preservation is essential in improving the general health of the family by supplying it with a varied and balanced diet.

Food preservation assures the consumer of a supply of foods that are out of season.

Preserved food can be transported long distances from where it is produce and stored for long periods in warehouse or homes without risk of its decomposed or endangering health.

Food preservation involves the use of heat, cold, drying, (water activity or Aw), acid (pH), sugar and salt, smoke, atmosphere, chemicals, radiation and mechanical methods.

A methods of making food safer that us well known and accepted today is pasteurization.

Pasteurization is the process of heating foods to a temperature for a designated period of time to destroy disease-causing and/or food spoilage bacteria.

It is to reduced the number of harmful microorganism, of present, to a level at which they do not constitute a significant health hazard.

A newer form of pasteurization is called ultrahigh temperature (UHT) pasteurization.

The amount of bacteria killed a heat method such as pasteurization depends how high the temperature is, and how long the food is held at the low temperature for a long time.

But using very high heat means that the food can be kept at that heat for a shorter time.

Preservation techniques that limit the availability of water, such as drying, salting and smoking and those that use heat, such as canning and pasteurization, dramatically alter the nature of food itself.

High pressure processing is another technology gaining popularity in recent years wherein high pressure are used to inactivate microorganisms in foods.

There are are several methods of applying electricity instead of heat to a pasteurize food; these technique are referred to as cold pasteurization. Irradiation, ohmic heating and high intensity pulsed electric fields are some of these technologies.

Irradiation methods involve treatment with ionizing radiation – gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet radiation and microwaves.

Pulsed food processing technologies include pulsed electric fields, pulsed light fields, and pulsed magnetic field.
Food Preservation