| What would you do if you heard an unfamiliar sound coming from your water heater? If you’re like most people you’d make a mental note to keep an eye on it, but ignore it for the most part. Unfortunately, this less than proactive approach often results in water heater floods. As an engineer, I’m more likely than the general population to investigate the cause of the water heater’s sound and proactively seek a remedy before a real problem has a chance to develop.
The FDA’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) seeks to accomplish the same with regard to food production. As discussed last week with regard to HACCP Principle 1, those involved in designing food processing equipment must proactively analyze designs to identify potential food safety hazards. Now let’s see how common sense is once again employed through Principle 2, guiding design engineers to take control of situations where hazards have been identified through Principle 1. HACCP Principle 2: Identify critical control points. A critical control point (CCP) is a step in the design process at which a control can be most effectively introduced to prevent or eliminate hazards. In this context a “control” would be a design revision to eliminate hazards identified during the Principle 1 stage. We will once again use the two examples introduced in last week’s blog discussion on Principle 1. In our first example, hazard analysis revealed that food can accumulate in a food processing machine in areas where cleaning is difficult or impossible. This accumulation would eventually rot and fall into uncontaminated food passing through production lines. Design engineers would work to address this contamination hazard by identifying a CCP within the design process, that is, the best place where a preventative measure can be added to the machine setup to facilitate removal of the accumulation. At that CCP, measures can be taken to change the machine’s design. Perhaps all that is needed to correct the situation is to include easy to remove access covers. In our second example hazard analysis revealed that the metal tooling as designed for our food production machine was too fragile and would not withstand the repeated forces imposed on it by the mass production process. This design flaw presents a strong possibility that metal parts will break off and enter food on the line. To correct this situation, design engineers must once again identify the juncture within the design process at which a CCP is identified. There, a preventative measure can most effectively be introduced, enabling more robust metal to be used in the tooling. The previous two examples illustrate CCPs being utilized within the design process. CCPs can also be introduced outside the design process, as when they are identified during the course of training procedures involving the operation, cleaning, and general maintenance of equipment and production lines. And an excellent way of implementing this approach is to have design engineers collaborate with operating and maintenance staff. Working together, they are best able to identify key elements to be addressed and make note of them within written procedures. Now that we have identified some examples of CCPs within the design process, we can move on to HACCP Principle 3 and how it guides design engineers to establish critical limits for each CCP.
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Posts Tagged ‘tooling’
Food Manufacturing Challenges – HACCP Design Principle No. 2
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
Food Manufacturing Challenges – HACCP Design Principle No. 1
Sunday, October 16th, 2011| Imagine a doctor not washing his hands in between baby deliveries. Unbelievable but true, this was a widespread practice up until last century when infections, followed by death of newborns, was an all-too common occurrence in hospitals across the United States. It took an observant nurse to put two and two together after watching many physicians go from delivery room to delivery room, mother to mother, without washing their hands. Once hand washing in between deliveries was made mandatory, the incidence of infection and death in newborns plummeted.
Why wasn’t this simple and common sense solution instituted earlier? Was it ignorance, negligence, laziness, or a combination thereof that kept doctors from washing up? Whatever the root cause of this ridiculous oversight, it remains a fact of history. Common sense was finally employed, and babies’ lives saved. The same common sense is at play in the development of the FDA’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) policy, which was developed to ensure the safe production of commercial food products. Like the observant nurse who played watchdog to doctors’ poor hygiene practices and became the catalyst for improved hospital procedures set in place and remaining until today, HACCP policy results in a proactive strategy where hazards are identified, assessed, and then control measures developed to prevent, reduce, and eliminate potential hazards. In this article, we’ll begin to explore how engineers design food processing equipment and production lines in accordance with the seven HACCP principles. You will note that here, once again, the execution of common sense can solve many problems. Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis. – Those involved in designing food processing equipment and production lines must proactively analyze designs to identify potential food safety hazards. If the hazard analysis reveals contaminants are likely to find their way into food products, then preventive measures are put in place in the form of design revisions. For example, suppose a food processing machine is designed and hazard analysis reveals that food can accumulate in areas where cleaning is difficult or impossible. This accumulation will rot with time, and the bacteria-laden glop can fall onto uncontaminated food passing through production lines. As another example, a piece of metal tooling may have been designed with the intent to form food products into a certain shape, but hazard analysis reveals that the tooling is too fragile and cannot withstand the repeated forces imposed on it by the mass production process. There is a strong likelihood that small metal parts can break off and enter the food on the line. Next time we’ll move on to HACCP Principle 2 and see how design engineers control problems identified during the hazard analysis performed pursuant to Principle 1. ____________________________________________
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