Is It Time for Retail HACCP? RETAIL A HACCP approach to food safety at retail can bring positive results By Sharon P. Wood, M.Sc. In my opinion, it is past time. The retail grocery store and foodservice establishment has changed over the past 20 years. Retail in the U.S. has evolved to where it is today due to many factors. From discount to big box stores—and from mail-order businesses to mom and pop stores to large chains to online retailing—the retail industry has transformed significantly. The fact is that many of us in retail have been using the basic principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) for many, many years without knowing it. Retail establishments, unlike your classic manufacturing facilities, are not routinely built for standardized work. Retailers face unique challenges with regard to process control. Some of these challenges include a broad range of employee educational levels, communication skills, language barriers and turnover rates. Retail is also known for its high rate of change over time to ensure competitiveness in the marketplace. Being diversified for the consumer base can be a competitive advantage, but this also presents challenges in providing adequate controls for high-risk food preparation processes. Production techniques are highly variable and continue to change. Suppliers, ingredients, manufacturers, specifications and menu items change frequently. Retail grocery stores are more complex than ever before, offering a plethora of fresh, made-in-store food products. What this industry faces is how to manage these “manufacturing-like” processes in a way that prevents hazards from occurring. Retail foodservice operations also struggle with changing menus, ingredients and sustained employee knowledge and execution. These challenges can be managed well, and the more progressive retailers have found a way to do this very effectively. Hazards in the Retail Environment The basic hazards stated by classic HACCP include biological, physical and chemical issues that can cause food to be unsafe. These hazards must be controlled by a strong food safety management system; left unchecked, they could result in serious brand damage or financial ruin for the business. Biological hazards include pathogenic bacteria, parasites and viruses. These can be controlled with a farm-to-fork approach to preventive actions. Physical contaminants such as metal, packaging materials and glass are just a few of the potential hazards that can be inadvertently introduced into food preparation areas. Strong personal hygiene plans and preventive maintenance strategies are good controls for these types of hazards. Chemical contamination can include food additives, unlabeled allergens and cleaning compounds. Proper storage of cleaning supplies and strategic management of raw ingredient suppliers can significantly reduce these risks. Foodborne illness risk factors must also be considered. During food preparation, the risk of cross-contamination is high if solid controls and processes aren’t in place. With their tight allocation of floor space, retail environments may not provide much room for raw and ready-to-eat segregation. Without proper controls in place, this can raise the risk of introduction of harmful bacteria onto food contact surfaces and finished product. Other contributing factors are poor personal hygiene, inadequate cooking, improper holding temperatures and contaminated equipment. To reduce the occurrence of these risk factors, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends active managerial control, a preventive approach with procedures in place for risk factor control that includes a continuous system of monitoring and verifying that the procedures are working. During the past decade, retail food establishments have introduced specialized food processing-type operations such as curing, acidification and reduced-oxygen packaging using sophisticated technologies and equipment, which requires stricter operational procedures to mitigate potential exposure to significant health risks. To remain successful, retailers today must not only adapt to the advances in retailing, but also implement solid processes to provide active managerial control of high-risk activities. HACCP can provide a reliable road map as well as principles to guide processes and standards. By doing this, a retailer can take a proactive role in ensuring that the food or products it sells are high quality and safe. Mitigating Hazards with HACCP So how does HACCP apply at retail? Basic HACCP is centered on some key principles that can be easily applied in various ways to a retail setting: Principle 1 — Conduct a Hazard Analysis Identify your potential hazards and evaluate them based on severity and likelihood of occurrence. Once this is accomplished for your specific processes or production schemes, decide what your control measures will be. Principle 2 — Determine Critical Control Points Where in your process can hazards be controlled? Probably only a few points are CCPs, where loss of control would result in the production of a potentially unsafe food product. Look to see where such hazards can be controlled. These points would be called Control Points: a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Retail Practice (GRP) or a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). A CCP would be a point, step or procedure where control can be applied and a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels. Some of the common operational steps used in a retail and foodservice facility include receiving, storing, cooking, cooling, reheating, hot and cold holding, packaging, serving and selling. Each of these key steps should be evaluated for where control measures can be implemented to reduce risk and provide a safe product. Be sure to use a solid decision tree process to determine your CCPs. Look at the overarching processes in your food preparation areas. Subsequent steps in the process may be more effective for controlling a hazard. More than one step may be involved in controlling a hazard, and a hazard may be controlled by a specific preventive measure. “HACCP can provide a reliable road map... to guide processes and standards.”
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 09:46:38 +0000
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