Prerequisite Programs and Food Safety Foundations
Prerequisite programs come first
A HACCP plan does not stand alone. It sits on a foundation of prerequisite programs (PRPs): GMPs covering buildings, equipment and personnel hygiene; sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOPs); supplier approval; allergen control; pest control; potable water; maintenance and calibration; glass and brittle-plastic control; training; and traceability and recall. PRPs are facility-wide and control many hazards - dirt, pests, condensation, hand hygiene - so the HACCP plan can concentrate on the few hazards that genuinely need step-specific control.
Know both Codex structures. The seven principles are: hazard analysis; determine CCPs; establish critical limits; monitor; corrective actions; verification; recordkeeping. The twelve steps add five preliminary tasks: assemble the team, describe the product, identify intended use and consumers, construct the flow diagram, and verify that diagram on site.
The classic trap is a question that offers a sanitation failure or a pest sighting as a CCP. Those belong to PRPs; a CCP must be a step where a control measure is essential and step-specific. Another trap blurs the principles with the preliminary steps, or claims that HACCP replaces GMPs.
Rule of thumb: if a single facility-wide program can control the hazard reliably for every product, it stays a PRP; if control must be applied at one defined step with a measurable limit, it becomes a CCP. Example: in a ready-to-eat sandwich plant, environmental Listeria monitoring and sanitation are PRPs, while the meat cooking step and its time/temperature limit are a CCP.