HACCP Audit and Management - Essay Example

Food Safety Management PG4030 HACCP Audit and Management Assignment 2 Introduction This report consists of two parts. The first part is labelledas "Critical Report and this pertains to a consideration of the existing systems and resources within the Potter food business. This will identify the gaps and project planning for the development and implementation of effective food safety management procedures with in Potter Foods. This will also consider the barriers to HACCP application and workable solutions as a prerequisite to the proposed plan for the HACCP application. The second part which is a project plan for HACCP implementation will be contained with in a power point presentation with key targets and milestones showing how the process will be accomplished. HACCP Hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) has emerged as a popular system of safety management and has become pivotal to securing the safety of the food supply and battle against the escalation of food borne disease.(Taylor and Taylor 2004).However as the instance of the Potter Foods example shows that small and medium sized businesses have found the entire process a "bureaucratic nightmare", and find the whole implementation of the HACCP complex and barriers.(Taylor and Taylor 2004).The system has its origins in the first US manned space Programme (Taylor and Taylor 2004 citing Buchanan 1990) and today it is "an operation specific system of preventative control, which identifies, evaluates and controls hazards of significance to food safety". On the facts we have been told that Potter foods has to as a matter of code of practice implement a food safety management system based on the Codex HACCP Principles with in a time frame of 2 years. It has been required that such a plan must cover all microbiological, chemical and physical hazards that might arise from the raw materials used, covering the entire of the manufacturing process, right up to the point of handover to the Customer. It was also specified that any support programmes, with the prerequisites must be effectively implemented with proper result.At this point I would suggest that such documentation must be completed upon a product-by-product basis and my project plan suggests that suitably qualified personnel should be employed to advance this process. Summary of the problem From the case study it is possible to glean that Potter's Foods being a medium-sized manufacturer of chilled ready meals based in the north of England has three large factory buildings dealing with bakery and party food items which are called Bakery, Chilled and Party .We have been told that the seasoning room and the raw material distribution centre are located in the same store and that the Company uses its own transport for work in progress foods or raw materials however it has not been mentioned that the distribution centre or its transport have proper refrigeration as this is very important for HACCP implementation and could be major reason for the foreign body complaints Potter Foods are facing. In the drawing up of the project plan it is pertinent to note that Potter Foods has to keep up its marketing edge as a flexible manufacturer, with low cost production and prompt delivery and at the same time utilise and keep up the customer confidence. It has also been mentioned that Party is an old building and may not be conducive to the HACCP implementation. There is a problem of taking action against suppliers for defective and unsafe food as it has been said that the raw materials purchased have little paper work into them. As mentioned before Potter's foods are having trouble with microbiological counts and poor equipment maintenance and there is consultation at an organised level with in the technical managers and directors. It has been stated that there is a large amount of wastage due to changes in raw materials suppliers and that the timing of the cooked foods and their temperatures is not adjusted for safety. There is also another danger as it has been stated that parts of machinery, plastic from baskets and other objects are always finding their way into product. There have been problems of negative feed back and delayed quality checks on account of business necessity .There is an overall lack of technical standards and process controls to be resolved so there is never any time to relax. There have been a number of attempts to introduce computerised monitoring systems at check-weighters boilers and but these systems have fallen to disuse due to lack of training and maintenance. The Barriers to HACCP implementation Firstly as the Diagram below shows that the internal management of Potter food might have problems following the perceived bureaucratic nightmare as shown by a research by Taylor and Taylor (2008). Based on the above fears commonly shared by medium sized businesses it should be noted that the project plan will have to reflect and clear and concise methodology of implementing HACCP codex standards. Furthermore the role of Employee training has been acknowledged in the literature as a major problem in the implementation of HACCP.The table below adopted from Hertzman(2007) shows a number of violations observed by the author which can commonly effect the health and wealth of a safe food manufacturing system. Hertzman (2007) has gone on to make a few other points about the intricacies of food safety management in off premise and on premise areas the extent to which better management of such factors can infact boost the success of a banqueting event .He has suggested an emphasis on pre-shift meetings where there should be a thorough discussion of sanitation events and whether the food preparation is off-premise or on-premise, there should be proper first aid arrangements.According to him there should be an increased usage of sanitizing solutions and access to a potable water source and a proper hand-washing sink at the site of the function.The vehicles used for the off-premise functions should have proper means of transporting food and equipment with a cooling unit. When it comes to personal hygiene it has to be remembered that this is a low paid industry and there will be a lot of violations on personal hygiene issues where as these will most frequently occur at off-premise food preparing or transporting units compared to the on-premise functions .Other violations when dealing with food may include the use of preparation of food for service at on- and off-premise transporting, with the most frequent violation being from moving food to food to holding equipment in improper temperatures again this being likely at off premise banquets. The management issue then is employee performance. Hertzman(2007) observes that despite knowledge of safety many employees and this has been seen to be a common complaint for corporate or independently catered events and despite the fact that the worker is part-time or full-time employee of the food company.This view is supported by ( Howes et al. 1996 ,Clayton and Griffith, 2004; Clayton et al., 2003; Green and Selman, 2005; Manning and Snider, 1993) who have suggested that there needs to be a proper training needs analysis for the employees to make the food safety regime a success rather than having mere seminars or workshops for food safety education which may not be suitable in a practical context. There is thus a need for effective training needs analysis for these employees as well as the role of better supervision by the managers in the food preparation areas.They should circulate more during an event (Hertzman 2007) so the " employees would have been more likely to follow the proper food safety and sanitation procedures knowing they would be reprimanded for improper procedures."Finally Hertzman (2007) a proper course for the employees based on a proper training needs analysis of the food preparation requirements.(See diagram below based on the recommendations of Hertzman (2007). Table 1 based on Hertzman's (2007) recommendations 1. Personal cleanliness: Hand washing requirements and procedures; Glove usage; and Not eating and drinking in food preparation and service areas. 2. Cooking, holding, and serving procedures: Hot and cold food holding temperatures; Proper food storage procedures; and Minimum internal cooking temperatures. 3. Equipment and other contamination: Definitions of and procedures for cleaning and sanitizing; Special equipment and procedures needed for off-premise catering; and Special equipment and procedures needed for buffets. Other Academics have warned against a too optimistic view of the HACCP outcome as Motarjemi and Kaferstein (1999) (cited in Wallace et al 2005) argue that this cannot be based "solely on retrospective analysis of outbreak data. although manufacturing sites often consider that they have implemented HACCP, frequently the outcome is an inadequate or poorly implemented HACCP System.Therefore as Sperber (1998) has pointed out the " continued auditing and verification of a HACCP system is at least as important and perhaps far more important than the initial development of the HACCP plan"(In Wallace etc al 2005).Sperber (1998) has also argued that this should require a thorough perusal of internal assessments carried out by food factory and independent assessments carried out by regulators and third-party bodies from extraneous sources should be undertaken for the effective implementation of HACCP. Of course the focus of the main project plan would remain effective HACCP training but it can be clearly seen that there are little or few training methods available within the Food and Safety management framework and matters are made worse by harmonized principles of the agreed tools internationally to measure the effectiveness of the whole HACCP system. For example the HACCP Training Standards Steering Group (HTSSG) has published introductory and advanced level training standards which were published by the UK Steering Group on HACCP Training Standards, 1995/1999 which emphasizes upon "practically based and contain worked examples".Wallace et al (2005) emphasize single training intervention for one or a group of employees but this can be done through a variety of approaches. The need for an effective Training Needs analysis is therefore pertinent for the employee force. Manager cooperation is of utmost necessity her as Nicola Mindell in her article Devolving training and development to line managers has argued that managers are one of the best group of people to devolve training responsibilities to and training should not only be seen as the responsibility of the Human Resources Department. She believes that apart from causing major performance improvements this would also save the organisations resources which would otherwise be diverted to the Human Resources Department .She has argued for an overall "bottom-line impact" of the training in this regard. Following her view if we consider the managers as not only the persons for whom training needs analysis is taken but also as those involved in the very essentials of the TNA procedure themselves then it can be said that the implications for the successful implementation of the HACCP at Potters food seem positive .Desai Richard and Eddy (1999) thave explained that in the modern corporate environment "training managers are challenged to find effective and innovative ways to train end users". Whereas they should be actively involved in undertaking the TNA and other training tasks actively they should also consider adding an element of CBT (computer based training) to the HACCP programme based on the needs of the employees of Potter foods t.It should be seen that at the end of the day the effective HACCP implementation entails not only that the managers of a firm should be the ones subject to the TNA but also the one's involved in undertaking a TNA. If they are in tune with the needs of their subordinates then they can take some very accurate training decisions. Furthermore where as conventional health and safety training would only cover work-related skills, techniques and knowledge, the modern TNA analysis would take a more positive progressive approach to the individuals development. Since the object would be personal or individual development then the most effective way to "develop people" i.e the employees working at Potter foods would be to analyze how their learning and personal growth can be supported. For the individual the TNA would be a good way of analyzing which one of the several methods of training would be better. These methods can include on-the-job training, informal training, classroom training, technical training, role-play games, attitudinal training, and distance learning etc.For the group of people carrying out the TNA a close overview of Potter foods budgetary capacity and work methods would be necessary to advise and analyze the individuals training needs. Based on the above we can now reach a conclusion as to main priorities and objectives in the implementation of Potter foods HACCP project plan. The plan would involve strategies for assessment of HACCP knowledge and effectiveness with in the Potter Foods employee base and internal management evaluation of the impact of training on successful upkeep of the HACCO implementation and maintenance later on and finally the plan to make recommendations for HACCP training and support strategy with in Potter Foods. References Taylor and Taylor (2004)Perceptions of "the bureaucratic nightmare" of HACCP: Journal: British Food Journal Volume: 106 Number: 1 Year: 2004 pp: 65-72 Copyright Emerald Group Publishing Limited ISSN: 0007-070X 1. Airey, S. (2003), "Food Standards Agency HACCP Branch", Personal Communication, 14 October, . 2. Ehiri, J., Morris, G., McEwen, J. (1995), "Implementation of HACCP in food businesses: the way ahead", Food Control, Vol. 6 pp.341-5. 3. Gilling, S., Taylor, E.A., Kane, K., Taylor, J.Z. (2001), "Successful HACCP implementation: understanding the barriers through the use of a behavioural adherence model", Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 64 No.10, pp.710-15. 4. Taylor, E.A. (2001a), "HACCP and SMEs: Problems and Opportunities", in Mayes, T., Mortimore, S. (Eds),Making the Most of HACCP, Woodhead Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, . 5. Taylor, E.A. (2003), Food Safety, Waitrose/Lancaster University, Lancaster, Paper presented at the seminar, Benchmarking Standards for the Agronomy Industry, 29 January, . 6. Griffith, C.J., Mortlock, M., Peters, A. (1999), "Evaluating the success of HACCP in enhancing food safety in small businesses", paper presented by invited speaker and participant in WHO consultation on the development of a strategy for the implementation of HACCP in small or less developed businesses, The Hague, June, . 7. Wallace et al (2005), Post-training assessment of HACCP knowledge: its use as a predictor of effective HACCP development, implementation and maintenance in food manufacturing ,British Food Journal Volume: 107 Number: 10 Year: 2005 pp: 743-759 Copyright Emerald Group Publishing Limited ISSN: 0007-070X 8. International HACCP Alliance (1996), "Basic course curriculum", available at: www.haccpalliance.org/, . 9. McKenna, E. (2001), Business Psychology and Organisational Behaviour - A Student's Handbook, Psychology Press, Hove, . 10. UK Steering Group on HACCP Training Standards (1995), HACCP Principles and their Application in Food Safety (Introductory Level) Training Standard, Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene, London, . 11. UK Steering Group on HACCP Training Standards (1999), HACCP Principles and their Application in Food Safety (Advanced Level) Training Standard, Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene, London, . 12. Wallace, C.A. (2001), "Effective HACCP training", in Mayes, T., Mortimore, C. (Eds),Making the Most of HACCP, Woodhead Publishing Ltd, Cambridge, pp.213-31. Wallace et al (2005),Development of methods for standardized HACCP assessment ,Journal: British Food Journal Volume: 107 Number: 10 Year: 2005 pp: 723-742 Copyright Emerald Group Publishing Limited , ISSN: 0007-070X 13. NCIMS (2004), "Dairy HACCP Audit Report Form", US Food & Drug Administration/Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, paper presented at the United States National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments, Frankfort, KY, available at: www.cfsan.fda.gov/comm/daihaud.html, . 14. Sperber, W.H. (1998), "Auditing and verification of food safety and HACCP", Food Control, Vol. 9 No.2-3, pp.157-62. 15. Standing Committee on Agriculture and Resource Management (2003), A Guide to the Implementation and Auditing of HACCP, CSIRO Publishing, Canberra, available at: www.publish.csiro.au/pid/1498. 16. Nicola Mindell Devolving training and development to line managers Management Development Review volume 8 number 2 pp 16-21 MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS ISSN 0962-2519 17. Jacqueline Reed and Maria Vakola What role can a training needs analysis play in organisational change Journal of Organizational Change Management Vol. 19 No. 3, 2006 pp. 393-407q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0953-4814 DOI 10.1108/09534810610668382 18. Gilbert, T., "Performance Engineering", in "What Works at Work: Lessons from the Masters", Lakewood Books, Minneapolis, 1988, p. 20. 19. A problem always with us By Andrew Mayo (September 2003)Training Journal page 40 20. A problem always with us Part two By Andrew Mayo (October 2003) Training Journal page 48 21. Boydell, T. and Leary, M. (1996) Identifying Training Needs, Institute of Personnel and Development, London 22. Scheule, B. (2000), "Food-safety educational goals for dietetics and hospitality students", Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Vol. 100 No.8, pp.919-27. 23. An assessment of food safety knowledge and practices of catering employees, Jean Hertzman, Deborah Barrash, , USA Journal: British Food Journal Volume: 109 Number: 7 Year: 2007 pp: 562-576 Copyright Emerald Group Publishing Limited ISSN: 0007-070X Read More