Critical Control Points

The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) food safety system focuses on steps that are critical to control hazards in the process to produce safe food. This course is based, in part, on HACCP. 

Process preventive controls must have documented parameters and minimum and maximum values, monitoring procedures, corrective action procedures, and validation that the process control addresses the hazard. 

These science-based values are quite specific and are applied at processing steps commonly referred to as Critical Control Points. It is important to document this information and different formats can be used. 

Process Preventive Control Form

PROCESS PREVENTIVE CONTROLS
PRODUCT:						PAGE 1 of ___________
FACILITY:						ISSUE DATE:
ADDRESS:
Process Control	Hazard(s)	Critical Limits	Monitoring				Corrective Action	Verification	Records
			What	How	How often	Who
[ What control will manage this hazard? ]

(FSPCA, 2016. Preventive Controls for Human Food Instructor Guide. Page 9-2)
DOWLOAD A BLANK VERSION OF THIS FORM

During the hazard analysis, you should consider hazards associated with that particular step in the production process. Each hazard must be evaluated to find how significant the risk is and the likelihood that the hazard will be dangerous to human health. If you deem the risk to be significant, it is considered a CCP, and you should devise measures to control the hazard.  

For example, when evaluating the peanut butter process, we identified roasting as a process control point requiring preventive control. We based this decision on the fact that studies show Salmonella bacteria may be present in large enough quantities in raw peanuts to cause illness. 

Process Preventive Control – Roasting

PROCESS PREVENTIVE CONTROLS
PRODUCT:						PAGE 1 of ___________
FACILITY:						ISSUE DATE:
ADDRESS:
Process Control	Hazard(s)	Critical Limits	Monitoring				Corrective Action	Verification	Records
			What	How	How often	Who
Roasting	Non-sporeforming pathogens, such as Salmonella

Process Preventive Control form example of Hazards (FSPCA, 2016, Food Safety Plan for Peanut Butter – Teaching Example, page 10)