HACCP is a systematic preventive approach to food safety, pharmaceutical safety, etc. that addresses physical, chemical and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection. HACCP is used in the food industry to identify potential food safety hazards, so that key actions, known as Critical Control Points (CCP's) can be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of the hazards being realized. The system is used at all stages of food production and preparation processes.

HACCP has been increasingly applied to industries other than food, such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

From 1 January 2006 the Regulation 852/2004 of the European Parliament on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs require that:

Food business operators shall put into place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure based on the principles of hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP).

The basic ideas of HACCP-concept are:

Make a hazard analysis
Determine the critical points (CPs) which might be of hazard in the production of the food.
Determine the CPs which may be CCPs being of high importance to the safety of the food and which maybe controlled safely using simple checks named "Controlling".
For the controlling define the specifications of the product.
Define a control system of the critical points, using tests which can be carried out during production in order to interfere in case of wrong production. "Monitoring".
Introduce a documentation in order to record every happening.
Define the corrections to be made in case of critical point being out of control.
Define the way of verification to confirm that the HACCP-system works."Verification"

The food hygiene guidelines can be summarised in the following points:

The cooling chain should not be interrupted.
Deep-freeze temperature: -18 °C (-15 °C).
Refrigerate as stated in instructions.
The pasteurization temperature should not be exceeded during cooking (88 - 97 °C).
Ready-to-eat food which has to be kept heated should not be allowed to go under 65 °C in 3 hours
When hot food is cooled, the range between +60 °C and +10 °C should be traversed within 3 hours.
The measured results must be logged.
The measuring instruments must be suitable and it must be possible to calibrate them.

SOME FACTS ABOUT GERMS

Normal germ levels of food and consumer goods
Total number per 10 square centimetres

Head of lettuce (unwashed)
Head of lettuce (washed)
Fresh strawberries
Pork (fresh)
Pork (hung)
Weighing scales (butcher)
Kitchen table
Kitchen cutlery (clean)
Palm of hand (washed thoroughly)

10,000 to 1,000,000
1,000 to 100,000
1,000 to 1,000,000
100,000
100,000,000
750 to 4,000
300
10 to 250
10 to 250

Normal germ levels of certain foods
Total number per 10 grammes or millilitres

Steak tartar (with egg and seasoning)
Liver sausage (on bread roll)
Italian salad (home made)
Onions (chopped)
Pepper (ground)
Milk (pasteurised)

100,000...to...30,000,000
500,000
3,000,000
20,000
30,000...to....1,000,000
.. to 10,000

Liver sausage (on bread roll)
Italian salad (home made)
Onions (chopped)
Pepper (ground)
Milk (pasteurised)

500,000
3,000,000
20,000
30,000... to....1,000,000
.. to 10,000

Source: BERG, THIEL and FRANK, „Rückstände und Verunreinigungen in Lebensmitteln“, UTB 675, Steinkopff-Verlag, Darmstadt, 1987

Bacteria multiplies itself every 20 minutes in favourable conditions
100 germs then become:

800
6400
51,200
409,600
3,276,800

germs in 1 hour
germs in 2 hours
germs in 3 hours
germs in 4 hours
germs in 5 hours

Sigma Hellas is offering the right instruments to monitor and manage the cold chain.

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