Cold Chain Procedures
Why are prerequisite programs important? Prerequisite programs when properly followed help keep many things from becoming serious problems that could eventually have an impact on food safety. They also make up the foundation from which to develop a hazard analysis, critical control point, or hazard program.
Good manufacturing practices represent one important prerequisite program, for example as part of the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) it is advisable to have a written training plan for employees that includes procedures and documentation of training activities.
It should cover topics on proper food handling, food protection, and concepts on how unsanitary practices and poor personal hygiene can lead to consumer and employee illnesses.
Other examples of prerequisite programs are:
Standard operating procedures
Sanitation standard operating procedures
Master sanitation schedules
Raw material controls
Product coding and labelling
Product traceability
Recall procedures
Consumer complaint management
Crisis management
There are several areas of concern in a fresh produce process where properly implemented and monitored GMPs with appropriate standard operating procedures can effectively control contamination of food or food contact surfaces, for example, inadequate cleaning of food contact surfaces, poor personnel practices, inadequate plant construction or design and inadequate pest control.
At a minimum, fresh produce processors should consider developing standard operating procedures for:
Receiving and Storage
Water quality
Washing
Cutting
Drying
Temperature control
Microbiological controls
Pest control
Packaging procedures
Storage
Transportation
Date coding
Recall procedures
If employees fail to follow standard operating procedures, reasons for the deviation should be clearly identified, for example when a piece of equipment breaks down the specific location, time, and reason for the equipment breakdown should be documented along with an explanation of what was done to correct the breakdown.
Each employee should clearly understand every prerequisite program involving themselves and their work area. This can be achieved by implementing continuous training programs. another component of prerequisite programs.
Important components of prerequisite programs are the sanitation standard operating procedures and master sanitation schedules; they are instructions or procedures for sanitary practices developed for each specific cleaning and sanitation operation. They identify what to clean, how to clean and sanitise, when to clean, and who should clean.
Why are SSOPs important?
Proper sanitary controls and procedures identify problems such as microbial contamination of fresh produce and their sources such as inadequately cleaned equipment before they cause illnesses and injuries. Once problems are found they can be corrected.
Suitable cleaning and sanitising prevent product contamination from unclean equipment, utensils, and facilities, thus reducing liability.
Fresh produce guidelines
Now let's consider guidelines that apply to fresh produce. one example is the guide to minimise microbial food safety hazards for fresh fruit and vegetables, which was published in 1998. This voluntary guideline provides recommendations on good agricultural practices (GAPs) and good manufacturing practices (GMPs).
This guide also discusses microbial food safety hazards common to fruits and vegetables sold to consumers in raw form. This guideline incorporates many comments and suggestions from the agricultural community and industry associations. All fresh produce should be grown according to the GAPs. The GAPs minimise the likelihood that fresh produce will contain pathogenic microorganisms.
A fresh produce processor should know as much as possible about the source of the fresh produce he uses and verifies that the fresh produce has been grown and harvested in a manner consistent with the GAPs.
HACCP
Once GMPs and prerequisite programs are in place, processors can develop additional food safety programs such as HACCP. HACCP is an acronym that stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. This concept is an important part of a food safety program because it builds upon the use of strong GMPs and prerequisite programs, focusing on prevention of food safety problems.
HACCP is a tool for managers and line workers to evaluate each of the firm’s operations from receiving to distribution. In HACCP the biological chemical and physical hazards that are associated with each operation are identified.
HACCP programs are a mandatory part of meat, poultry, juice, and seafood production but HACCP is not currently required for fresh products, just as one cannot sanitise without first cleaning. HACCP cannot be properly planned and implemented without a strong foundation of GMPs and prerequisite programs.
CCPs
After identifying the hazards, critical control points or CCPs are identified. CCPs are those points in the processing where controls can be applied and where the loss of control would lead to a food safety problem. For example, monitoring residual antimicrobial levels such as chlorine in wash water is a critical control step.
When antimicrobial levels are too low, any pathogen present may survive and result in food that is unsafe for consumption. Therefore, a process is put in place for each CCP to make sure that food safety problems do not occur. The process is then monitored frequently to ensure that all aspects of the product process at the CCP are in control.
