Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [45]
GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE PROPOSES HACCP: “A RADICALLY DIFFERENT METHOD”
In the early 1980s, investigations by the General Accounting Office (GAO) revealed that USDA inspectors were no longer able to keep up with the recently increased line speeds in meat-processing plants, but the department had failed to do anything to solve that problem. The GAO investigators thought it was high time the USDA instituted a radically different method for keeping microbial pathogens out of the meat supply: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, familiarly known as HACCP (and pronounced “hassip”).6 Despite its singularly obscure name, HACCP is a thoroughly modern and sensible method for keeping pathogens out of the food supply. Before proceeding further, we need to take a look at what it is and how it works.
The origins of HACCP date to the dawn of the space age. In 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) asked the Pillsbury Company to develop a food system for astronauts in outer space consisting of total meal replacements in the form of bars for foods and tubes for liquids. NASA demanded safety as the highest priority. The agency did not want its astronauts to come down with microbial food poisoning while on space missions—a difficulty likely to be especially unpleasant under conditions of zero gravity. Pillsbury scientists examined every stage of food production, transport, preparation, and storage, “from farm to rocket ship” (translation: they conducted a hazard analysis). They identified each of the steps—critical control points—at which microbial contamination might occur. They then developed methods to eliminate those possibilities (and accomplish pathogen reduction). The company designed this decidedly science-based process to prevent contamination at every stage of production and processing. The plan required supervisors to sample for microbial contaminants only when needed to prove that control measures were working. Later, Pillsbury used this system in its flour mills and processing plants, with great success.7
TABLE 8. The seven principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)
1. Conduct a hazard analysis: determine where microbial contamination is most likely to occur and identify measures for preventing such contamination.
2. Identify critical control points: locate the steps in processing where microbial contamination can best be prevented.
3. Establish critical limits or standards for each critical control point (temperature, for example).
4. Establish requirements for monitoring of standards at each critical control point (when and how temperature is to be measured, for example).
5. Establish corrective actions needed to maintain standards at each critical control point (for example, adjusting refrigerators or ovens).
6. Establish record-keeping procedures for monitoring standards and taking corrective actions.
7. Establish—and use—procedures for verifying that the HACCP system is working as intended.
SOURCE: USDA/FSIS. Federal Register 61:32053–32054, June 12, 1997.
HACCP is simple in its basic concepts and can be highly effective when it is used correctly (we will soon see what happens when it is not). In addition to its demonstrable success in outer space, studies on earth also show that appropriate use of HACCP reduces foodborne illness. HACCP requires food companies to analyze production processes intelligently, anticipate safety hazards at appropriate critical control points, and establish effective prevention controls and standards. Table 8 outlines the seven principles of HACCP. These principles place the burden of ensuring safe food on its producers. Under HACCP, USDA inspectors would no longer poke and sniff animals or meat products. Instead, their job would be to examine control point records to make sure that companies were adhering to the HACCP plans.8
Figure 5 illustrates