HACCP
Also known as: hazard analysis and critical control points, food safety system
Short definitionA food safety system that identifies hazards in advance, measures at critical points and ties everything to records. Cold room temperature is the most common critical control point.
HACCP does not look for the fault in the finished product; it prevents it in the process. It has seven steps: identify the hazard, choose the critical control point, set a limit, define how it is monitored, write down what to do when the limit is exceeded, verify the system and record everything. It comes from the Codex Alimentarius principles; ISO 22000, BRCGS and IFS are built on it. Typical limits are +4 °C at most for a fresh meat store and −18 °C at most for a frozen store.
For whoever builds the room it means concrete things: a calibrated recording probe that is independent of the controller, high-temperature and door-open alarms, and a logger that keeps data through a power cut. Air temperature rises briefly during defrost; that is why the limit is defined on product temperature and time. Washable panels, coved corner profiles, a sloped floor and protected lighting are also part of the plan. The first thing an auditor asks for is the temperature records.