HACCP hits a benchmark for food safety
A new version of the general Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) model for beef slaughter has been released by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The model from 1996 has been replaced with this update. The model can serve as a foundation for creating a HACCP strategy for the slaughter of different kinds of animals.
The organization has also created a new Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP) manual at the same time.
FSIS released four updated HACCP guidance models two months ago to assist the meat and poultry industry in staying current as part of its continuing changes to HACCP guidance.
Guidelines and generic models are intended to assist processors in fulfilling regulatory requirements to produce safe and healthful food products. The most recent ones are for raw ground beef, bacon, beef jerky, and pork slaughter. The USDA’s required HACCP regulations, which aim to enhance the safety of meat, poultry, and other food items, are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. For seafood, the Food and Drug Administration mandates HACCP protocols. HACCP was recently added to the list of requirements for producing egg products, which are likewise governed by the USDA. Additionally, governments have imposed additional HACCP standards along the way for a variety of food products.
Updated scientific references, a product description, an ingredients list, a production flow diagram, hazard analyses, and HACCP plans are all included in these models and guidelines for meat and poultry.
Government rules requiring HACCP food safety plans in meat plants were prompted by an E. Coli O157:H7 outbreak in 1993, which was caused by the hazardous bacterium contaminating undercooked hamburger patties sold at Jack in the Box restaurants in Washington state. In the end, the outbreak led to serious infections that resulted in 700 foodborne illnesses, 170 hospital admissions, and four deaths across four states.
Because of the catastrophe, meat and poultry inspection procedures have been completely redesigned in the US, Canada, and other nations.
A HACCP food safety plan must include the following: analyzing the plant for potential hazards; identifying critical control points where preventative measures can be taken; establishing critical limits during processing and slaughter; monitoring the critical control points that the plant has established; implementing corrective measures in the event that food safety issues do arise; documenting the entire food safety system; and performing validation and verification procedures to ensure that the plant’s HACCP system is operating as intended.
Controlling hazards
According to Kerri Gehring, PhD, a professor of animal science at Texas A&M University and the president and CEO of the International HACCP Alliance, “seafood actually started using HACCP before meat and poultry.”
Inspectors used to “poke and sniff,” or use their senses of sight, smell, and touch, to identify possible risks before HACCP became required for the inspection of meat and poultry. The current major challenges to food safety, which are primarily microbiological and pose the greatest risks to consumers, were not well detected by such technologies. Because inspectors had complete control over factories, meat and poultry inspection was also known as “command and control” prior to HACCP changing the inspection system.
And although inspectors continue to have a significant say in what occurs in plants, HACCP introduced two significant modifications: (1) It changed the process of conducting inspections for food safety. (2) It placed the burden of creating a HACCP food safety plan on plants. Plant managers used inspectors to determine whether what they were doing was “right” or “wrong” prior to the implementation of HACCP. The onus of manufacturing safe food was now shifting farther onto the business.
Previously the Administrator of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, Al Almanza is the worldwide head of food safety at JBS. According to Almanza, experts initially believed HACCP would not be a good safety method to apply in the food sector.
Almanza stated, “Critics claimed it was made for the car industry and NASA (the space industry), not for food safety.” They failed to see the importance of HACCP in controlling the highly regulated meat and poultry business. or that HACCP may make food production safer at plants that process meat and poultry.
But was there a better way to enhance the safety of the product and the slaughter of chickens and meat? No, Almanza replied. Conversely, he thinks it’s been the finest choice in terms of food safety. “HACCP set up a prescribed way of doing things, and it has streamlined the entire approach to inspection for FSIS and industry – how they communicate with each other, the expectations of meat and poultry plants and inspectors.”
“There was no real playbook for food safety in the days of ‘command and control’ before HACCP,” Almanza stated. “There were a tonne of variables and absolutely no consistency. Our system for inspecting meat and poultry as well as the methods used by processors to ensure the safety of their goods are now more uniform thanks to HACCP. These days, food safety and its measurement methods are far more accurate. Establishment operators and inspectors have expectations regarding HACCP plans and systems.
Inspectors spend a lot of time looking for problems with food safety, whether they stem from other problems or microbiological ones. Furthermore, it has made it possible for JBS and other businesses to establish complex, reliable food safety systems that can identify issues before they arise.
Assessing safety
That being said, not everything about HACCP has always been simple or flawless. Small, very small, and medium-sized meat and poultry processors are represented by the American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP), whose executive director, Chris Young, stated that HACCP was a burden for these companies, particularly in the beginning when they had to learn about it and how to apply it.
AAMP has been crucial in supporting small processors using HACCP and still does.
According to Young, “some plants initially closed or switched to custom-exempt operations because they didn’t want to take on such a major change.”
Small businesses have had difficulties in adopting a new food safety system that required a significant overhaul of the long-standing culture of meat and poultry inspection since, in contrast to huge corporations, they lacked staff microbiologists and scientists. However, land grant universities around the nation and groups like AAMP provided the small processors with a lot of assistance, setting up and continuing to offer HACCP training programs.
Having said that, Young emphasized that HACCP has significantly improved food safety in the meat and poultry sector, particularly in the small industry.
He said, “HACCP has greatly benefited the industry.” Everyone was compelled to comprehend the aspect of processing related to food safety. It forced them to examine their procedures and identify the points at which they had control over the safety of their food. It helped the sector, particularly the tiny and extremely small processors, become aware of potential risks and controls for producing safe goods.
That doesn’t mean, however, that it isn’t occasionally challenging or difficult. According to Young, small and very small plants have benefited more from the HACCP models that the USDA has been releasing lately. “Many of the models that the USDA first released were actually better suited for the operations of large facilities. I’m happy to see support and assistance for small plants under the current FSIS administration,” he remarked.
One problem that AAMP is leading at the moment is the increasingly significant HACCP certification requirements. Appendices A and B, which outline the specifications for thermal processing and stabilization (cooling down), are especially concerning.
According to Young, “the small industry has always been more dependent on being able to follow clearly defined requirements like this.” “It’s crucial that they can meet these requirements because, for example, the very small and small processors still make big hams.”
For a number of years, Young has met with USDA-FSIS to ensure that the organization can develop specifications that processors in the small and very small industry can fulfill.
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Teaching processors, big and small, about HACCP and how to comply with its standards dates back to the HACCP rule’s inception, according to Gehring. Plant operators have received significant training from the HACCP Alliance to enable them to establish and manage HACCP plans and systems at their facilities. The industry recognized that mandated HACCP was just a few years away, thus in 1994 the organization was founded.
“We call it ‘train the trainers,’ because we have trained and will continue to train people to teach HACCP to plant operators and demonstrate how to set up HACCP plans and systems,” she explained. Nearly all food products now have to adhere to HACCP or similar standards.
Subsequently, the HACCP Alliance sponsored numerous HACCP training sessions for the sector, catering to both large and small operations. Gehring clarified, “Some large meat and poultry plants actually had HACCP in place before it was required—they did it voluntarily.”
As she was wrapping up her graduate studies, she became active. “Dr. Russell Cross, a USDA employee, was departing to take a teaching position at Texas A&M. Together with me, he and Rosemary Mucklow, the National Meat Association’s director at the time, formed the HACCP Alliance with the intention of funding HACCP education for all. Gehring acknowledges that the Alliance has been a key player in supporting HACCP education from its founding and continues to lead the organization. Gehring assisted in the Alliance’s development.
Gehring stated that change is never easy, particularly when it involves significant cultural shifts within long-standing systems where things have always been done a certain way.
Gehring stated, “I believe the biggest contribution of HACCP to the food industry is that it transformed industry achievements and government inspections into a science-based system to reduce consumer risks associated with food safety.”