HACCP: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point
Food Safety Plan and Audit Readiness
HACCP is a preventive food-safety system that identifies significant biological, chemical, physical, and allergen hazards and establishes controls before unsafe food reaches a customer. ISO IRAQ helps food-chain organizations in Iraq build a plan that matches their actual products, processes, equipment, people, and customer requirements.
What is HACCP?
HACCP is a management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product.
Seven Principles of HACCP
HACCP is based on seven principles:
- Conduct a hazard analysis
- Determine the Critical Control Points (CCPs)
- Establish critical limits
- Establish monitoring procedures
- Establish corrective actions
- Establish verification procedures
- Establish record-keeping and documentation procedures
Start with prerequisite programs
A HACCP plan depends on working prerequisite programs (PRPs). The site should control cleaning and sanitation, pest activity, personal hygiene, water, waste, maintenance, supplier approval, storage, transport, allergens, calibration, temperature, and facility conditions. Auditors and customers normally expect completed records and follow-up evidence, not only written procedures.
For example, a cleaning program should define what is cleaned, the method and chemical concentration, frequency, responsibility, verification, and action when a result is unacceptable. The controls must be practical for the site, shifts, products, and contamination risks.
Build the hazard analysis from the real process
A multidisciplinary team should describe the product and intended use, map every process step, and verify the flow diagram where the work occurs. The analysis then considers relevant hazards at receiving, storage, preparation, processing, packaging, labeling, rework, dispatch, and outsourced activities.
Not every hazard becomes a Critical Control Point. The team should justify significance, consider existing PRPs and other control measures, and explain why a step is managed as a CCP or by another control. Critical limits and action criteria need a technical basis and must be measurable in normal operations.
Monitoring, corrective action, and verification
Each control needs a clear answer to what is measured, how, how often, by whom, and where the result is recorded. When a limit is missed, the organization should control affected product, restore the process, investigate the cause, prevent recurrence, and retain the disposition and corrective-action evidence.
Verification can include record review, calibration, sampling, testing, internal audit, trend analysis, and observation. Validation provides evidence that the selected control can manage the hazard before it is relied upon or after a significant change. The depth should match the product, hazard, process, and intended use.
Traceability, withdrawal, and team competence
A practical traceability exercise should connect suppliers, materials, processing records, release, storage, and customers for a selected batch. Record the time taken, quantity reconciliation, missing information, decisions, and corrective actions. A withdrawal or recall procedure also needs defined authority, communication, product control, and post-exercise review.
Training attendance alone does not demonstrate competence. Operators should understand the controls assigned to them, recognize a loss of control, protect affected product, and know who to notify. Observation, questions, demonstrations, and record review can verify that training works.
Benefits of a working HACCP system
Implementing HACCP provides numerous benefits:
- Internationally recognized system for food safety
- Support for applicable food-safety requirements
- Reduced risk of foodborne illness
- Increased consumer confidence
- Improved process control
- Reduced waste and costs
- Enhanced reputation
Our HACCP services
We offer comprehensive HACCP services to help organizations implement and maintain an effective food safety system:
- HACCP Plan development
- Hazard analysis support
- Implementation guidance
- Training for HACCP teams
- Internal audits
- Certification-readiness support where ISO 22000 is in scope
Common readiness gaps
- A generic plan does not match the site, product, equipment, or process flow.
- PRP, temperature, sanitation, calibration, or CCP monitoring records are incomplete.
- The hazard analysis is not reviewed after a supplier, formula, equipment, packaging, or process change.
- Critical limits are copied without a documented technical basis or validation.
- Traceability and withdrawal arrangements have never been tested.
- Corrective actions address a form but do not control affected product or prevent recurrence.
Primary HACCP sources
Prepare HACCP evidence for ISO 22000
Use the food-safety readiness checklist to review hazard analysis, prerequisite programs, traceability, training, internal audits, and management review.
Read the Checklist Discuss HACCP SupportBenefits of HACCP
- Safe food production
- Requirements readiness
- Cost effectiveness
- Risk reduction
- Market access