Food safety plans

HACCP, quality management and auditing are critical to food safety assurance. Put simply, they are about describing your process, analysing what could go wrong, putting in procedures to prevent them going wrong, and then checking that the systems are working.

HACCP and quality systems

Product safety is the prime concern of all in the food and drink supply chain. Effective HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and quality systems underpin food manufacturing. Hazard analysis is cited in both European and UK legislation as a key tool in the assurance of product safety. It is therefore essential that food companies understand where food safety hazards may occur and establish a means to control and monitor the critical points in the process.

Our recently-launched fifth edition of ‘HACCP: a practical guide’ heads the list of practical publications which collectively support the development, implementation and use of HACCP systems in food production, primary processing and manufacturing, and are complemented by a wide range of advice and consultancy services – giving you direct access to the team of expert authors.

We can help you in all aspects of quality management – to ensure that your systems meet legal requirements, and the sometimes much stricter requirements of your customers. Amongst the areas in which we can offer help are: awareness training; specification and system design; development of QA management strategies; and preaudit support and awareness.

TACCP

A major part of ensuring a safe and reliable food supply chain is a defence against outside, often malicious, threats. Different to HACCP, which controls elements within the food production process, Threat Assessment and Critical Control Point (TACCP) deals with unpredictable outside threats to the food supply chain.

Through TACCP, we can help you evaluate, document, understand and control the threats that originate from, for examples, criminals who use extortion and individuals with a grudge – in essence all of the risks from external elements that are not under your direct control.

Auditing services

We are regularly involved in a wide range of safety auditing services. Some of these are ‘formal’, such as against our HACCP Auditing Standards and the Feed Materials Assurance Scheme (FEMAS), which is designed for breweries and distilleries, whilst others are less formal, and are designed specifically to help you evaluate your processes and systems.

Audits do not have to be onerous events when an outside body ‘tells you what to do’; they should be taken on to help you achieve what you want to do.