HACCP key terms

A systematic, science-based food safety management approach that identifies hazards, sets control points and limits, monitors them, and verifies that the system is working.

Basic environmental and operational conditions, such as sanitation, pest control, and employee hygiene, that must be in place before a HACCP system can effectively control food safety hazards.

Regulations and practices covering facilities, equipment, personnel, and processes to ensure food is produced under sanitary conditions and is safe and suitable for its intended use.

Written procedures describing the specific cleaning and sanitizing tasks, frequencies, chemicals, and monitoring needed to maintain sanitary conditions in food production areas and on equipment.

Any biological, chemical, or physical agent in food that can cause illness or injury, or any condition that could lead to such contamination.

Living organisms or their toxins-such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, or molds-that can contaminate food and cause human illness when consumed.

Harmful chemical substances that may enter food, including cleaning agents, pesticides, toxins, drug residues, and allergens, and that can cause illness or injury at unsafe levels.

Foreign objects such as glass, metal, plastic, stones, or bone fragments that can cause injury or illness if present in food at unacceptable levels.

A normally harmless protein that triggers an immune reaction in sensitive people; in food safety it must be controlled through labeling, segregation, and cleaning to prevent undeclared exposure.

Transfer of harmful microorganisms or allergens from contaminated sources-such as raw food, equipment, hands, or surfaces-to ready-to-eat food or clean areas.

A written document prepared for a specific food product or process that lists the hazards, critical control points, critical limits, monitoring, corrective actions, verification, and records required.

A multidisciplinary group with knowledge of the product, process, and food safety hazards that develops, implements, and maintains the HACCP plan.

A step-by-step schematic of a food process showing all inputs, processing steps, storage, and outputs; it is verified on site and used to identify where hazards may occur.

The process of identifying potential biological, chemical, and physical hazards at each step, assessing their likelihood and severity, and determining which are significant enough to require control.

A structured evaluation of the likelihood and severity of a food safety hazard, used to decide whether the hazard is significant and how much control is needed.

The two dimensions used to judge a hazard's risk: how probable contamination or illness is, and how serious the resulting harm would be.

A hazard that is reasonably likely to occur at an unacceptable level and to cause illness or injury unless a control measure is applied.

Any action, process, or technology-such as cooking, refrigeration, metal detection, or sanitation-that prevents, eliminates, or reduces a significant food safety hazard to an acceptable level.

A structured series of questions used to determine whether a control measure at a process step qualifies as a critical control point.

A specific point, step, or procedure in the food process where a control measure is essential and can be applied to prevent, eliminate, or reduce a significant hazard to an acceptable level.

A measurable maximum or minimum value that must be met at a CCP to ensure the control measure effectively prevents, eliminates, or reduces the identified hazard; exceeding it constitutes a deviation.

A tighter value than the critical limit that a processor uses to reduce risk and allow early action before the critical limit is exceeded.

A step where a hazard can be controlled, but loss of control does not necessarily create an unacceptable food safety risk, so it is not designated a CCP.

Planned, scheduled measurement or observation of a CCP and its critical limits to confirm the process remains under control and to detect deviations promptly.

A failure to meet a critical limit at a CCP, indicating that the process may have produced unsafe food and requiring corrective action and product evaluation.

The documented steps taken when monitoring detects a deviation, including correcting the process, determining product disposition, and preventing recurrence of the problem.

The decision about what to do with food produced during a deviation-such as holding, testing, reworking, diverting, or destroying it-based on a safety evaluation.

A status that keeps suspect product out of commerce until its safety is evaluated and a disposition decision is made.

Ongoing activities, other than monitoring, that confirm the HACCP plan is working as intended, such as record reviews, calibration checks, audits, and product testing.

Scientific and technical evidence gathered before and during operation to show that control measures and critical limits are capable of controlling the identified hazard.

The creation and retention of documents such as monitoring logs, corrective action reports, calibration records, and verification results that demonstrate the HACCP system is operating correctly.

A planned or triggered review of the entire HACCP plan to determine whether it remains valid after changes in product, process, equipment, or scientific information.

Comparing a measuring instrument-such as a thermometer or pH meter-against a known standard and adjusting it to ensure monitoring readings are accurate.

A microorganism, such as Salmonella, Listeria, or E. coli O157:H7, that can cause illness when present in food at sufficient levels.

Food that is consumed without further cooking or processing to eliminate hazards, so it must be protected from contamination throughout production, storage, and handling.

The process of cleaning surfaces to remove soil and then treating them with heat or chemicals to reduce microorganisms to levels that do not compromise food safety.