5 replies to this topic

[nikiforos]

Hi to everyone...

i am a new user in this forum and i am a little bit confused about hazard analysis.

Lets take two raw materials and two kind of hazards powder milk and foreign bodies (metal, glass, etc) and an additive (powder) and heavy metals.

My questions are the following

1) In the assesement of hazard (likelihood of occurrence and the severity of health consequences associated with the potential hazard) do i take in consideration
-for the first case the preventing measurement only or/and some next steps in my production line like sieves etc?
-in the second case the preventive measurement only (which by the way are only certificate of analysis of the supplier or quarantee of him) or the percentage of the additivy in the recipe, which lowers the level of heavy metals in the final product (despite that its higher than MRL limits from legislation for this additive)?

2) How far do i extend the hazards of a raw material (eg. a powder)? Do i take in consideration hazards like toxic compounds because of transportation inside the truck of chemical with the powders?

3) The severity of hazzards like pesticides, heavy metals, aflatoxins is what grade? 2 to 3 or 3 to 3?

4) If there is a hazzard with the lowest likeihood of occurence but with highest severity in health, eg. some sporeforming pathogens in a protein powder, shall i be "brave" to exluded from the desicion tree process? If from the decision tree comes out that the raw material is a CCP, can i have as a control measurement the quarantee of the supplier in a statement of better the certificate of analysis at each batch i receive? Are there CCP which the contol measurements are in frequency once per year? I know that the ISO22000 solves that matter by deviding them to CCP and OPRPs but its still a question i have.

Thank you in advance for your repplies....

[Charles.C]

Dear Nikiforos,

Nice to hear from you.
Certainly agree that HACCP is not a very straight line subject despite what the books may say.

I apologise if I misunderstand yr questions but are these queries primarily in the general context of use for decision tree ? (I don’t personally use it as such, so am being cautious).

No doubt some specific answers will appear shortly however I can make some general comments –
I guess you already know that some of yr queries (2,3,4 perhaps) may relate to so-called prerequisite programs ?
Have you already tried related existing threads on these subjects in this forum (eg decision tree –
http://www.ifsqn.com...?showtopic=1371 )

Are you specifically asking in the context of ISO22k or any other particular HACCP system ?

Have you considered consulting generic HACCP plans for, say, milk powder if that is a primary interest since I guess some queries will depend on that case + yr individual circumstances?

Rgds / Charles.C

[nikiforos]

Dear Charles,

thank you for you fast reply.

Correct me if i am wrong for my following thoughts

The usage of assesement of hazard (likelihood of occurrence X severity of health) in a certain step (despite that the raw and packaging material is not a step for some studies) is to evaluate if the certain hazard will participate in the decision tree of CCP's or not. Or is it used in the 3rd question of the decision tree "Could contamination......" of Codex? Or neither both of the above?

The likelihood of occurrence in the assesment of a hazard is based basically in the prerequisite programs you have taken for this hazard. And my question was that do i take in consideration also some other aspects like the percentage of an additive in my final product (for eg. heavy metal hazard) or next steps in my production line (sieves for foreign matters for a physical hazard from raw material)?

Kind regards

Nikiforos

[Charles.C]

Dear Nikiforos,

Thks for yr clarification.
I normally don’t use a DT myself so the risk analysis comes in quite early similar to the downloadable example of a Non-DT, HACCP system on this forum (which includes a risk analysis [documents and archives section]).
I think (and DT users feel very free to correct me) that the answer yr para.”the usage..” may depend on yr individual HACCP approach. I can see one example where the use of a risk evaluation may appear in “both” -
http://seafoodhaccp....anuals_pdf.html

Regarding the last paragraph, the intention of HACCP is to be as comprehensive as you can make it regarding all “possible” hazards and then categorise them based on yr assessment of if, how, where etc they are to be controlled, eg as part of a GMP system, as a CP, a CCP according to yr hazard analysis. Yr specific application (eg ISO22k) may require a certain format to be followed however it is still the intention that the analysis should be appropriate for your system so this seems to me to allow you the flexibility in the use of risk analysis although you will be expected to be able to validate yr decision.

Please come back if anything not clear, we have plenty of DT specialists here I think.

Concerning yr direct queries, I still recommend looking at appropriate published HACCP plans since this step makes a convenient validation after re-interpretation to yr set-up, eg -

http://www.inspectio...ue/tablee.shtml

http://www.fao.org/d...00.htm#Contents

Hope this helps

Rgds / Charles.C

[hacked]

you can address the hazards separately for both materials. analyzing both hazards at the same time can lead you to a complex problem. simpler is better.

[Charles.C]

Dear Jong,

Good comment.

You could usefully repeat it in the ISO 22000 forum also.

Rgds / Charles.C