EHAI Primary Food Safety flashcards
EHAI Primary Food Safety · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- HACCP seven principles
- Hazard analysis, CCP determination, critical limits, monitoring, corrective actions, verification, and record-keeping. The sequence is fixed; verification and records come last.
- Critical control point (CCP)
- A step where control can prevent, eliminate, or reduce a significant hazard to an acceptable level. It must have a measurable critical limit and be monitored.
- Critical limit
- A measurable value separating acceptable from unacceptable at a CCP, such as 74 °C for 15 seconds or pH 4.6. It must be verifiable by monitoring.
- Monitoring at a CCP
- Planned, timed observation or measurement of a critical limit, assigned to a named role, and recorded at the time of observation rather than afterwards.
- Corrective action
- Predetermined response when a critical limit fails: segregate affected product, decide disposition, fix the cause, and record the action and outcome.
- Verification versus validation
- Validation confirms the control measure actually works as designed; verification confirms it is being applied consistently, through record review, calibration, and audit.
- Prerequisite programs
- Foundation controls such as GMP, sanitation, pest control, supplier approval, training, and traceability. They must exist before a HACCP plan is built.
- Hazard analysis
- Systematic review of each process step to identify biological, chemical, physical, and radiological hazards, then rank them by severity and likelihood.
- Danger zone
- The temperature range roughly 5 °C to 57 °C (41–135 °F) in which TCS food supports rapid pathogen growth and must be time-limited.
- Two-hour/four-hour rule
- TCS food held between 5 °C and 57 °C for under 2 hours may be returned to control; after 4 hours cumulative it must be discarded.
- Cooling curve
- Cooked food must go from 57 °C to 21 °C within 2 hours, then to 5 °C within 4 more hours, six hours total.
- Reheating for hot holding
- Food reheated for hot holding must reach 74 °C (165 °F) for 15 seconds within 2 hours before transfer to hot holding.
- Hot and cold holding limits
- Hot holding must keep food at 57 °C (135 °F) or above; cold holding at 5 °C (41 °F) or below. Both need periodic temperature checks.
- Thermometer calibration
- Ice-point check at 0 °C or boiling-point check at local altitude; an uncalibrated instrument invalidates monitoring records and is a verification failure.
- Record retention
- CCP and monitoring records must be kept at least as long as the product shelf life, commonly 2 years, and must link to lot traceability data.
- Allergen cross-contact
- An allergen hazard controlled by dedicated lines, validated cleaning, production sequencing, and label verification; it is treated as a chemical hazard.
- Sanitation SOP
- Documented cleaning procedure stating frequency, chemicals, concentration, contact time, and responsible person. It is a prerequisite, not part of HACCP.
- Food safety objective
- A stated maximum frequency or level of a hazard in food at the point of consumption, used to design process controls and validate them.
- Water activity (aw)
- Free moisture available for microbial growth. Values below 0.85 generally inhibit pathogen growth and are used as a critical limit.
- pH as a control
- Acidity below pH 4.6 generally prevents growth of pathogens including Clostridium botulinum; it is a measurable critical limit in acidified foods.
- Spore-forming pathogens
- Clostridium botulinum and Bacillus cereus survive normal cooking; control relies on cooling rate, pH, water activity, or pressure canning.
- Listeria monocytogenes
- A pathogen that grows at refrigeration temperature; controlled by cook-step lethality, environmental swabbing, and post-process hygiene.
- Norovirus control
- A viral hazard spread by infected handlers; control is handwashing, exclusion of ill workers, and no bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food.
- Handwashing duration
- Wash with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, including backs of hands, between fingers, and under nails, then dry.
- Ill worker exclusion
- Workers with vomiting or diarrhoea are excluded and typically may not return until at least 48 hours after symptoms cease, subject to local rules.
- Cross-contamination controls
- Colour-coded equipment, separation of raw and ready-to-eat zones, workflow from clean to dirty, and handwashing between tasks.
- Bacterial growth factors
- Temperature, time, moisture, acidity, oxygen, and nutrients. Removing any one factor, such as drying or acidifying, limits growth.
- TCS food
- Time/temperature control for safety food: high-protein, high-moisture, near-neutral pH items such as meat, dairy, eggs, cooked rice, and cut greens.
- Pest control program
- A prerequisite program using proofing, monitoring stations, and documented corrective action when pest activity is detected in the facility.
- Traceability and recall
- Lot coding linking raw materials to finished product allows a recall to be scoped. Mock recalls test the system and are a verification activity.
- Food defence
- Protection against intentional contamination, covering site access, personnel screening, and securing water, chemicals, and storage areas.
- Sanitizer contact time
- The labelled time a sanitizer must remain wet on a surface, often 30 seconds to 1 minute for chlorine, to achieve the stated log reduction.