The application of the HACCP system can aid inspection by food control regulatory authorities and promote international trade by increasing buyers' confidence.
PRINCIPLES OF HACCP
There are seven principles of HACCP on which to base a food safety management system. The HACCP system consists, of the following seven principles: (FDA, 1997)
1. Conduct Hazard Analysis
2. Determine Critical Control Points (CCPs)
3. Establish Critical Limits
4. Establish Monitoring Procedures
5. Establish Corrective Action Procedures
6. Establish Verification Procedures
7. Establish Recordkeeping System
QUALITY ASSURANCE: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE
Prior to the major food and drug quality control overhaul in Nigeria initiated by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigeria has been a dumping ground for substandard products. Dr. Akunyili in her anniversary presentation before media executives and captains of industry traced the NAFDAC journey beginning from April 12, 2001 when she assumed leadership, saying that Nigeria’s rating in the comity of nations in food and drug regulation was among the poorest at the onset. Before now, “made in Nigeria drugs,” she says, “were officially unaccepted in other West African countries like Ghana and Sierra Leone with strong regulations”. “This development led to treatment failures, organ dysfunction or damage, worsening of chronic disease conditions and the death of many Nigerians.”
Like many other developing countries, Nigeria faces the challenge of providing adequate food supply for its teeming population. Towards this end, policies and programmes aimed at boosting agricultural and food production should be actively promoted. However, the issue of food safety poses a more daunting challenge. Like several other countries, Nigeria has to contend with the problem of food-borne diseases with their attendant social, economic and health costs. (Omotayo et al., 2002). Realizing the central focus that the issue of food safety is attracting globally, Nigeria needs to take appropriate and pragmatic steps to ensure food safety and quality for domestic consumption and export.
12 TASKS IN THE APPLICATION OF THE HACCP PRINCIPLES
The application of HACCP principles consists of the following 12 tasks as described below: (FDA, 1997)
1. Assemble HACCP team
The food operation should assure that the appropriate product specific knowledge and expertise is available for the development of an effective HACCP plan. Optimally, this may be accomplished by assembling a multidisciplinary team. Where such expertise is not available on site, expert advice should be obtained from other sources. The scope of the HACCP plan should be identified. The scope should describe which segment of the food chain is involved and the general classes of hazards to be addressed (e.g. does it cover all classes of hazards or only selected classes). Information sources to answer questions raised by the team should include universities, public and private research authorities, government and public authorities, scientific and technical literature, databases, etc.
2. Describe product
A full description of the product should be drawn up, including relevant safety information such as: composition, physical/chemical structure (including Aw, pH, etc.), microcidal/static treatments (e.g. heat-treatment, freezing, brining, smoking, etc.), brief details of the process and technology used in production, packaging, durability and storage conditions, intended use, including target population and method of distribution.
3. Identify intended use
The intended use should be based on the expected uses of the product by the end user or consumer. The HACCP team must specify where the product will be sold, as well as the target group, especially if it happens to be a sensitive portion of the population (i.e. elderly, immune-suppressed, pregnant women and infants.
4. Construct flow diagram
The flow diagram should be constructed by the HACCP team. It is easier to identify routes of potential contamination, to suggest methods of control and to discuss these among the HACCP team if there is a flow diagram. The flow diagram should cover all steps in the operation. A plant schematic should be developed to show product flow and employee traffic patterns within the plant for the specific product. This plan should aid in the identification of any areas of potential cross-contamination within the establishment.
5. On-site confirmation of flow diagram
The HACCP team should confirm the processing operation against the flow diagram during all stages and hours of operation and amend the flow diagram where appropriate. This will ensure that all the major process operations have been identified. It will also confirm the assumptions made with respect to the movement of product and employees on the premises. Adjustments should be made to the flow diagram, as necessary based on the actual operations observed.
6. List all potential hazards associated with each step, conduct a hazard analysis, and consider measures to control identified hazards (Principle 1)
Hazard analysis is the first HACCP principle. Technical expertise and scientific background in various domains is required for proper identification of all potential hazards. The HACCP team should list all of the hazards that may be reasonably expected to occur at each step from primary production, processing, manufacture, and distribution until the point of consumption.
The HACCP team should next conduct a hazard analysis to identify for the HACCP plan which hazards are of such a nature that their elimination or reduction to acceptable levels is essential to the production of a safe food. The team must then consider what control measures, if any, exist which can be applied for each hazard. More than one control measure may be required to control a specific hazard(s) and more than one hazard may be controlled by a specified control measure.
7. Determine Critical Control Points (Principle 2)
There may be more than one CCP at which control is applied to address the same hazard. The determination of a CCP in the HACCP system can be facilitated by the application of a decision tree (figure 1), which indicates a logic reasoning approach. If a hazard has been identified at a step where control is necessary for safety/and if no control measure exists at that step or at any other, then the product or process should be modified at that step, or at an earlier or later stage, to include a control measure. Application of a decision tree should be flexible, given whether the operation is for production, slaughter, processing, storage, distribution or other. It should be used for guidance when determining CCPs.
8. Establish Critical Limits for each CCP (Principle 3)
A critical limit represents the boundaries that are used to judge whether an operation is producing safe products. (FDA, 1997) Critical limits must be specified and validated if possible for each critical control point. In some cases more than one critical limit will be elaborated at a particular step. Critical limits may be set for factors such as temperature, time (minimum time exposure), physical product dimensions, water activity, moisture level, etc. These parameters, if maintained within boundaries, will confirm the safety of the product. The critical limits should meet requirements of government regulations and/or company standards and/or be supported by other scientific data
9. Establish a Monitoring System for Each CCP (Principle 4)
Monitoring is the scheduled measurement or observation of a CCP relative to its critical limits. The monitoring procedures must be able to detect loss of control at the CCP. Further, monitoring should ideally provide this information in time to make adjustments to ensure control of the process to prevent violating the critical limits. Where possible, process adjustments should be made when monitoring results indicate a trend towards loss of control at a CCP. The adjustments should be taken before a deviation occurs.
10. Establish Corrective Actions (Principle 5)
Deviation procedures are a predetermined and documented set of actions to be implemented when a deviation occurs. Procedures should be in place to identify, isolate and evaluate products when critical limits are exceeded. Inadequate deviation procedures could result in unsafe products and the eventual recurrence of the deviation. Records should be available to demonstrate the control of products affected by the deviation and the corrective action taken.
11. Establish Verification Procedures (Principle 6)
Careful preparation of the HACCP plan with clear definition of all the necessary items does not guarantee the plan's effectiveness. (Peters, 1997). Verification procedures are necessary to assess the effectiveness of the plan and to confirm that the HACCP system adheres to the plan. Verification should be undertaken at the completion of the HACCP study; whenever there is a change in product, ingredients, process, etc.; when a deviation occurs; in the event of newly identified hazards; and at regular predetermined intervals.
12. Establish Documentation and Record keeping (Principle 7)
Efficient and accurate record keeping is essential to the application of a HACCP system. A record which shows the process history, the monitoring, the deviations and the corrective actions (including disposition of product) that occurred at the identified CCP should be kept. It may be in any form, e.g. processing chart, written record, computerized record. The importance of records to the HACCP system cannot be overemphasized. It is imperative that the producer maintains complete, current, properly filed and accurate records.
HACCP AND THE DAIRY INDUSTRY
In 1997, 155.2 billion pounds of raw milk was produced in the U.S. resulting in 1.1 billion pounds of butter, 7.3 billion pounds of cheese, 1.4 billion pounds of dry milk and 1.3 billion gallons of ice cream manufactured. With less than 5% of reported food-borne diseases originating from contaminated dairy products, the U.S. dairy industry has an excellent record when considering the amount of dairy products consumed. In-spite of the industry's excellent record, disease causing bacteria have appeared in dairy-based finished products. Problems associated with the presence of Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and others have been documented. (Brian et.al. 2003). Recent studies have shown that yeast is also a major contaminant in many dairy products. (Hall et al., 2002). The problem of such contamination could be attributed to many factors some of which includes storage, transport and packaging procedures. Therefore, it is important to develop a hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) system for the production of these products. The implementation of such system to yogurt production is of great importance in order to produce microbiologically safe dairy product. The system was implemented for yogurt processing line as produced by a large dairy company in Jordan. (Rabi et al., 2004). Six critical control points were identified in the flow chart of yogurt production; corrective actions and effective preventive measure were effected. The microbial results after the implementation of the HACCP system were within safety limits and demonstrate how the hazards at the critical control points (CCPs) of the process are easily and effectively controlled through the implementation of the HACCP system to popular dairy products. (Rabi, et al 2004). The implementation of a successful HACCP plan has been a guiding light for Costa Rica and Dos Pinos’ emergence into the dairy export market. By maintaining its high standards, Dos Pinos has been able to gain market share in exports and become a leading provider of milk to less developed Latin American countries. (Alyssa et al., 2005).
Yoghurt Production in the Abuja Metropolis
The Abuja Metropolis represents the capital city of Nigeria and the yoghurt producing factories in the metropolis provide the consumers with the larger percentage of fermented dairy products consumed in the capital city. The standard operating procedures for production and the production flow charts for the various yoghurt producing factories are similar (Figure 2). Most factories make use of powdered milk as raw material and take the safety of this raw material for granted. The microbial and chemical safety of the additives used in the production (e.g. sugar, flavours) is also taken for granted. Some of the factories analyze their water supply before production but this analysis is not always conducted for every batch of production. This is because most factories rely on public analysts for this analysis since they don’t have analytical laboratories in place. Although most NAFDAC certified yogurt factories have Manufacturing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place for production, they do not have the facilities for the implementation of the HACCP system and hence, cannot guarantee the safety of their products. The Government and regulatory agencies should take the adoption of the HACCP system more seriously.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In conclusion, the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System offer the most promising opportunity any economy can take advantage of to ensure that consumers are assured of the quality of products they consume.
The adoption and application of HACCP as a public policy for the establishment of industries is recommended. Adequate steps should be taken to compel food industries to meet safety requirements, such as assessment of food safety, training of personnel, technology transfer and strengthening of the national food control system.
The main food safety and quality problems encountered with the country’s exports Include; Product quality (problem of HACCP); Poor packaging and dearth of compliance and health certificates hence, the Government should fulfill its obligation in consumer protection, support the food industry (particularly medium- and small-scale food industry) and render assistance to industry in trade opportunities where certification is required.
Regulatory Verification should be a routine part of regularly scheduled government inspections. Verification should include a review of the company consumer complaint file.
Compliance actions should be enforced when regulatory verifications indicate deficiencies in the HACCP plan or implemented HACCP system that could result in health hazards in the food products.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I acknowledge the effort of Dr. Azare, B.A and Mrs. Adeyemo, M.O for their contributions to the success of this work.
Figure 1: Example of a decision Tree to identify CCPs
Figure 2: Example of a Production Flow Chart for Yoghurt Production in Abuja Metropolis
REFERENCES:
Alyssa f., Megan O., Chris P. and Erin W. (2005). Dos Pinos and the dairy industry of Costa Rica. Journal of Dairy Science, 379:1517
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