HACCP/Food Safety Systems

HACCP is a pro-active process control system by which food quality is ensured. This system has been adopted by many countries around the world and is mandatory in some countries. Acumen's experts are able to assist companies design and implement HACCP systems as well as provide training for their staff. Acumen also supplies industry leading HACCP software - HACCP2000.

The HACCP process consists of:

Hazard Analysis,

Identifying Critical Control Points (CCP),

Establishing Critical Limits for each CCP,

Monitoring CCP requirements and using the data gathered to effectively control processes,

Corrective Action,

Record keeping,

Verification.

The ISO 9000 standards (Quality Assurance) provide an excellent framework for the inclusion of the HACCP principles and an ongoing basis for continual improvement. Monitoring, corrective actions, recording keeping and verification requirements are already contained within ISO 9000. Adding hazard analysis and CCP's to the quality system is relatively simple.

Acumen's specialists are able to assist with the identification and documentation of potential hazards. The range of hazards could include safety hazards such as toxins, contamination, foreign bodies, decomposition, microbiological and non-safety hazards such as product quality, product substitution, etc. The next step by Acumen is to help identify "critical control points" in the production process and establish critical limits. Many companies include too many CCP's in their HACCP system thereby making it unwieldy and ineffective. The key is to separate the important control issues from those that have no real impact. CCP's are those where the failure of the process would cause or contribute to the occurrence of a hazard. Critical Limits are then established for each CCP. These limits may be determined by Government regulation and are used to establish that the HACCP system is working correctly.

The remaining parts of the HACCP system, Monitoring, Corrective Action, Record Keeping and Verification already exist within an ISO 9000 quality system. Acumen would normally strengthen those these parts of the ISO 9000 system to ensure they effectively deal with the HACCP requirements.

In addition to the food and related industries, Acumen is able to adapt the methodologies and disciplines of HACCP to a variety of environments, eg health industry, to effectively control and monitor critical or hazardous issues e.g. infection.