0.4 Food safety: introduction to control of food hazards- general

Welcome

Welcome to Introduction to Control of Food Hazards: General and Specific .

This learning module is part of the Food Safety Knowledge Network Basic Level Program.

The Basic Level and Intermediate Level Programs were developed through a partnership between the Global Food Safety Initiative and Michigan State University to enhance the technical knowledge of individuals responsible for food safety, especially those working for small or less-developed businesses.

To learn more about the Food Safety Knowledge Network, please visit www.foodsafetyknowledgenetwork.org .

Module overview

You need comprehensive knowledge to control food hazards within your company. Lack of the control of hazards can cause contamination resulting in risks to consumer health or loss of product leading to significant financial loss. Food hazards can be biological, chemical, or physical in nature. As a food safety manager, you should be aware of the significance of hazards and must identify and monitor hazards within your production process.

This module covers the requirements for effective general and specific controls to prevent food hazards.

The following topics will be discussed:

• system development
• biological hazards
• chemical hazards
• physical hazards
• control of food safety hazards.

Module objectives

Upon completion of this module you should be able to

• describe the principles and reasons for controlling food hazards
• explain the nature of food safety hazards (biological, chemical, physical, and allergens) and factors influencing the likelihood of their occurrence (such as, conditions which influence food safety hazards commonly associated with specific ingredients used, specific processes undertaken, and specific foods produced as well as customer requirements and legislation)
• explain the recognized and known control measures and how to apply these to control hazards relevant to specific products, taking into consideration local regulatory compliance and customer requirements
• design the monitoring procedures necessary to ensure control of food safety hazards relevant to the product
• perform corrective actions when control measures are not achieved
• operate a system for maintaining comprehensive records in relation to the control of identified hazards.

System development

As the person responsible for food safety within the factory it is important to develop a system to ensure and monitor that the staff is fully aware of and uses

• good biological hazard prevention practices
• good chemical hazard prevention practices
• good physical hazard prevention practices
• risk analysis processes to identify all possible hazards.

Any system will have to be clearly and concisely documented and communicated effectively to appropriate staff within the company.

It is important to work closely with key company staff to ensure that they clearly understand the importance of such systems and the ways they can influence effective compliance.