Physical, Chemical and Biological Characteristics

HIi Gurus,
I have a question regarding the Hazard analysis. I am using a templete which calls for,
Physical Characteristics
Chemical Characteristics
and Biological Characteristics.
Can anyone explain me what are these and how to find them?

Thanks,
Best regards,
NPK

Hi Jean,
We are into a trading business and dealing with all types of packed foods ranging from frozen chicken, Vinegar, Cheese, Pork items, etc.
We import the items form Europe and sell them in UAE.
Hope this info is sufficient for the question.
Thanks,

Dear All,
Repeating the above question, I searched in the net and was not able to find anything by name "Characteristics". Instead there are Phsical, Chemical and Biological Hazards. Are these mean the same?
I mean Characteristics = Hazards.
Need this info very urgently.
Can anyone help me ASAP.

Thanks,
Regards,
NPK

imo.. "characteristics is not same with "hazard"..

I think that you may have to determine characteristics of products (specification) so you could do better hazard analisys. for example phisical characteristics are consistency, dimensions... Biological could be number of microorganisams (by some standard for products) and Chemical could be aditives, conservans, vitamines, structure of product (Fe, Ca, NaCl, proteins...)
Afther you detremin all this characteristics than you can do hazard analisys properly.

Dear NPK,



Hazards are different from the characteristics. Can you post the template so that the members can comment and help you better?



AFAIU, for e.g. if we take cheese, the characteristics that one would look into are mainly:-

Aroma, appearance & texture (Physical characteristics),

Protein, lactose, fat & salt content, pH, moisture (Chemical characteristics) and

the starter culture used like Lactococcus lactis and the activity of the culture (Biological Characteristics)



I hope you got an idea.

Dear Jean,
Thank you very much for tthe clarification. Now I am very clear on the subject.

Thanks once again.

Take care

Dear npk:

You can refer to:
- Suppliers' specifications
- Food regulations including the regulation from the importing countries
- Codex Alimentarius website
- Scientific literature
- Previous recall cases from USFDA website, Food Safety UK website etc.

Regards,
Yong

Dear npk,

Just a comment to add to the rest –

I assume the hazard analysis is for the purpose of obtaining a HACCP plan.

“Characteristics” can refer to any properties within yr respective referred categories (biological / chemical / physical) as well illustrated by previous posts. But, usually, “hazards” for HACCP only refers to those characteristics which are safety related, ie which may cause harm in health to the consumer, eg chemical toxicity, biological bacterial disease.

Successive steps in the HACCP analysis are then designed to prioritise the “significant” hazards.

(At one time, the HACCP plan also included non-safety characteristics also but currently not).

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Jean,
We are into a trading business and dealing with all types of packed foods ranging from frozen chicken, Vinegar, Cheese, Pork items, etc.
We import the items form Europe and sell them in UAE.
Hope this info is sufficient for the question.
Thanks,

Hi npq,
As you are in trading, the storage temperature is very important characteristic of the product. It is a key stone for trading HACCP plan.
Regards: Ayayay