HACCP is Critical to Food Safety

Follow these 6 Steps to get it Right

HACCP IS CRITICAL TO FOOD SAFETY—FOLLOW THESE 6 STEPS TO GET IT RIGHT

INTRODUCTION
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a critical part of food safety. Below is a best-
practices approach to building your HACCP plan, along with the Food Safety Management System
(FSMS) functions that help simplify the process.
1. Conduct a Hazard Analysis in a revision controlled Document Control system. Anytime
a CCP is reviewed or is revised, any affected documentation
Through the use of a hazard analysis, stakeholders identify
can also be reviewed for change management.
points in the production process where a risk could occur,
determine the severity of the risk, and identify control
measures for any significant risk. 3. Establish Monitoring Procedures
Monitoring procedures are used to allow visibility into
Technology Consideration: Risk Management whether all CCPs are under control and will provide stake-
Using an FSMS that will outline the process steps for each holders with a verification record for future use.
product and incorporate risk-based technology enables
stakeholders to identify potential hazards for each process Technology Consideration: Nonconformances
step. The ability to track the type of hazard, identify the Should a CCP result in a failure, an automated FSMS should
roles involved, and determine the type of control needed to have the ability to automatically generate a nonconformance,
mitigate any hazard is key to providing safe, quality food. look for any deviations, and recommend action based on the
A flexible GMP system will allow you to easily configure data. This could result in product being discarded, reworked,
keywords, logins and pages as you’d like. Basically, it’s the approved for one-time use, and in some instances, could
ability to make the software your own, without the need for generate a corrective action to investigate the event.
IT assistance. For instance, graphical tools like drag and drop
4. Establish Corrective Actions
will allow the user to make changes to the look and feel of
the system, without the need for programming knowledge. A critical part of a FSMS is the ability to initiate a corrective
This in itself is a key part in making the user comfortable action for a process or product deviation. The goal of
with the system. corrective action is to bring the process back to a controlled
state and investigate the root cause with the ultimate goal
of taking action to eliminate the cause. Corrective action is
2. Identify CCPs and Establish Critical key in implementing a continuous improvement program.
Limits
When a hazard analysis determines that there is a significant Technology Consideration: Corrective Action
risk in the process that requires control, a Critical Control The FSMS can streamline and simplify the process through
Point (CCP) may be needed. the use of a Corrective Action module. This system will route
all events through review, root cause, corrective action taken,
Technology Consideration: Risk Management and and verification stages, and will generate reports automati-
Document Control cally, which will provide an effective method for tracking
Using intelligent automated Decision Tree technology, an the source and cost of all adverse events. Implementing Risk
FSMS can guide users through the process of determining Management with the Corrective Action system will allow
if a hazard requires a CCP and provide a revision controlled stakeholders to effectively determine the risk level of the
environment that will establish the conditions for CCPs. The event and set the priority based on the risk, allowing stake-
FSMS will document CCPs by describing the process steps, holders to handle the most critical Corrective Actions first.

the critical limits, the monitoring procedures involved, the
frequency at which it is being monitored, and any related SaaS is ultimately a low maintenance approach to deploying
corrective actions. Any records such as procedures, work a GMP system—the cloud saves you the cost of traditional
instructions, or specification(s) related to CCPs should be deployment methods, without sacrificing the system’s value.
automatically linked to the plan. These records should reside

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HACCP IS CRITICAL TO FOOD SAFETY—FOLLOW THESE 6 STEPS TO GET IT RIGHT

5. Establish Record-Keeping and The FSMS should be able to assist stakeholders in each of
Documentation Procedures these areas.

Record-keeping procedures are required to ensure that the

Technology Consideration: Audits and Change
HACCP system is following the HACCP plan and that the
Management
plan is satisfactory. All of the support documents from the
An Audits system will automate the process of auditing the
HACCP plan development should be stored for the required
HACCP plan and other food safety programs. The FSMS will
amount of time and be accessible for review.
allow stakeholders to schedule system audits on a regular
basis. The Auditing system should be flexible enough to
Technology Consideration: Document Control,
cover everything from PRPs to CCPs, and even affected
Deviation and Change Management
documentation. The FSMS can also automatically generate
An FSMS should have a Document Control system in place,
comprehensive audit reports that provide evidence of how
which manages the creation, approval, distribution, revision,
the HACCP plan is being controlled.
and archiving of all documentation within the FSMS. Look
for a Document Control system that links to the PRPs and
An automated Change Management system will provide
has the ability to execute change requests across multiple
a repository that shows what changes were made to the
documents. The benefit is that when a food safety process
prerequisites or HACCP plan, why the change(s) was made,
is audited and needs to be changed, all affected documents
and what resulted from each change.
can also be a part of that change.

Truly automated systems provide a significant level of CONCLUSION

document traceability within the processes that they Following the right food safety processes while estab-
automate, whether by a well defined audit trail, revision lishing your HACCP plan will help ensure that you provide
control, or corrective action histories. Companies are able consumers with a safe, high quality product, while reducing
to draw on this historical data to improve for the future risk.
and maintain well-documented processes. Through use of
an automated Deviation module, organizations can identify ABOUT VERSE
deviations, develop a deviation plan with target completion Quality and compliance management software is becoming a
dates, approve proposed deviations, and verify the completion growing requirement in businesses today. With the speed of
of deviations that are in process. Continuous improvement is the market ever-increasing, companies need solutions that
a critical part of the success of any organization, and having will allow them to manage and track quality and compliance
procedures in place for change management is a key feature processes, while automating processes efficiently. VERSE
in a FSMS. The Change Management system will provide a was developed to enable organizations to gain these valuable
repository that shows what steps to follow when making tools in a cost-effective manner. VERSE has all the key quality
changes to both processes and products, and provides a processes such as document control, corrective action,
clear definition of how to execute such changes. audits, and training in a dedicated cloud environment. This
means you have an enterprise quality management system
6. Establish Verification Procedures in your own personal cloud. VERSE means versatility; quality
Verification procedures are procedures, methods, tests, management software for all.
and audits that are conducted to ensure compliance to the
HACCP plan and to determine whether any modification
or review is needed. Examples of verification activity could
include equipment calibration and process audits to ensure
manufacturing processes are under control.

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