What is HACCP? 7 Steps to Implement the HACCP System

HACCP becomes very important for business operating in food and beverage services. This type of businesses which emphasize increasing customer satisfaction and total quality management try to want to learn HACCP meaning and how to implement their restaurant.

What is HACCP?

HACCP means Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. This system’s first purpose systematic approach to identify and prevent the factor that could create a dangerous element in food products

What are the Possible Elements that Cause Danger?

If we categorize the elements that will cause danger in food products: It is possible to express these elements in 3 main categories as Biological, Physical, Chemical elements. Undoubtedly, the most difficult thing in combating these elements is biological hazards. It requires more technical knowledge and experience.

7 Steps to Implement the HACCP System

First of all, in order to implement this system, top management should be interested in the subject and support throughout the whole process.

Preparation Phase

You need to fulfill some requirements before you implement the HACCP plan. The most important of these is the determination of the team that will implement the system.

• Create a Team to Implement the HACCP Plan: This team can consist of your food and beverage manager, chefs working in the kitchen, and the restaurant manager. If you do not want to create a team in your own business, you can assign it to external consultants and create a team.
• Review Your Products in Detail: Answer questions individually for each product, such as which raw materials your products are made from, where they are kept, and what types of customers are consuming these products (customers with allergies etc.).
• Specify Workflows: Describe in detail the entire process from raw material you supply to delivery of the final customer to produce the product and create a flow diagram for each product.

HACCP Plan Steps

1. Identifying Risk Factors and Potential Hazard Factors: Identify any hazards that may occur in each product and production phase in your workflows that you have identified at this stage. Note what measures you can take against these risk factors that you have set.
2. Determination of Critical Control Points: Determination of points of danger is important in terms of preventing these hazards. Identify these points well and eliminate the danger (e.g. wearing gloves).
3. Identify Limits for Hazard Components: This is a significant step in determining the extent to which hazards can be tolerated. These limits may be legally unacceptable tasks or they may be hazard limits of the quality standards set by the business. For example, the amount of protective agent used in the product may be one of the criteria we can use when determining our limits.
4. Follow the Process: We have identified our critical control points, we know which tolerance intervals they should have and our limits. Now we can start watching the process. When processes are being followed, you can do this continuously or within certain periods.
5. Perform Corrective Preventive Actions: The moment we follow the error limit at any critical point while following the process, the phase in which we perform the corrective preventive action required to clear the error. At this stage, the error must be corrected quickly.
6. Make Required Controls: The HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system we are trying to create in this step is checked to see if it works correctly. You can revise the system by eliminating the problems that are detected as the result of the check.
7. Record: The processes in the HACCP system that you create must be recorded and stored within the time frame to be set. We recommend that you carry out this phase in an appropriate manner so that you will benefit from these records for activities such as process evaluation, development, and improvement.

What Benefits HACCP Operation Provides

HACCP, one of the most effective systematic approaches to combating food pests, provides great contributions to the business. Let’s briefly list them:

• Provides competitive advantage by separating the operator operating in Food and Beverage Services from others
• Total Quality Management strengthens the process

• Increases efficiency and effectiveness.
• Raise customer satisfaction, allows you to avoid potential dissatisfaction
• Increase your restaurant’s prestige
• It allows the personnel working in our business to fulfill their tasks better and easier.

HACCP will make incredible contributions to our restaurant in very short time. Today, HACCP is become a necessity for restaurants.

Food & Beverage Businesses operating in the industry compete with each other to reach specific standards and provide better service to customers. At this point, applying your HACCP applications on your business will take you one step ahead of your competitors.

You can share your questions about the HACCP system with us in the comments section or share your experience with others.

Resources

1. Vikipedi. (2016, 08 26). HACCP. Vikipedi: https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/HACCP