A food safety plan, or HACCP plan greatly improves food safety for businesses, and Global Food Safety Consultants is now offering free consultations to determine if your HACCP plan is up to date with FDA regulations.
“The FDA requires a HACCP plan for any business that manufactures, packs, processes, or stores any kind of food product,” says Lisa Nicely, co-founder of Global Food Safety Consultants. “That means that restaurants, food product factories, farms, and other food businesses all need one. Some companies may believe they are compliant, but their HACCP plan may be out of date or need some adjustments.”
Nicely adds that each HACCP plan is specific to its location, so if a business uses the same plan for multiple locations, they may not be compliant. The HACCP plan also takes into consideration all possible hazards and addresses how to prevent food contamination and foodborne illnesses through safety practices.
“If your HACCP plan was created years ago, it’s possible there have been changes in the business that require updating the plan,” Nicely says. “By offering free consultations on a food company’s HACCP plan, we hope to identify issues and help food producers improve their safety practices.”
Although FDA requirements specify that food businesses must have a HACCP plan, ensuring that this plan is updated and covers all potential dangers also has benefits of preventing recalls, food waste, and customer complaints. Any time a food business takes steps to reduce food contamination, they serve the dual purposes of preventing foodborne illness and reducing expensive production problems.
As an example of HACCP plan efficiency, the Food Safety and Inspection Service created the Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point rule in 1996. By the year 2000, salmonella contamination in broiler chickens had dropped 56 percent compared to 1995 levels measured before the rule went into effect. There were also 190,000 fewer cases of salmonella-associated illness in 2000 than in 1995.
SOURCE: PR Newswire