HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is a structured method for finding the food safety hazards in a specific process and controlling them at the steps where control decides the outcome. The Codex Alimentarius general principles of food hygiene describe it, and every major certification scheme builds on top of it.
The seven principles
- Conduct a hazard analysis for the process as it actually runs.
- Determine the critical control points.
- Establish validated critical limits for each one.
- Establish monitoring for each critical control point.
- Establish corrective action for a deviation.
- Establish verification that the system works.
- Establish documentation and records.
What it looks like in a frozen fruit plant
Metal and foreign body detection is the usual critical control point. Freezing and cold storage are normally managed as operational prerequisite programmes rather than critical control points, because holding at temperature prevents growth instead of destroying a hazard. What an auditor looks for is that the study describes your line rather than a template line, that limits are validated, and that the study was revisited when the process changed.
HACCP is a method, not a certificate. A “HACCP certificate” from a commercial body is not a substitute for a GFSI-recognised scheme audit when a buyer specification asks for one.
More detail: how the food safety standards fit together.