Establishing critical limit for a specific CCP

What is your reference for establishing critical limit for a specific CCP? I mean, how do you know if critical limit is appropriate? Please give examples.

Somebody can shed light on this?

What is your reference for establishing critical limit for a specific CCP? I mean, how do you know if critical limit is appropriate? Please give examples.

Somebody can shed light on this?

The reference can be from local authority regulations, international standard etc.

In our factory, hazard at our CCP is Salmonella sp.
we choose control measure based on its' growth factors such as temperaturre, pH, aw. Because the temperature and pH of our products can't reach
the standard so we choose to check aw products for control measure and critical limit based on the minimum aw standard for Salmonella sp. growth.

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Hadi

Upon determination that a Food Safety Hazard (FSH) is reasonably likely to occur, you have to determine control measures. You then have to determine the amount and method of control to eliminate, reduce, or prevent the FSH from existing past the CCP location in the process flow. Part of this risk assessment is determining what controls will be used and how - as HPG mentioned, he is controling parameters that affect an organism's growth, In my case, since I know Salmonella is present in raw poultry, and I have no lethality step, my CCL is set at the mininum growth temperature of Salmonella. If you had a physical hazard concern, you would evaluate the control (say a filter screen) and determine empirically, by regulation, or literature review, what screen size is needed to prevent the hazardous particulates from passing through. For Ready-To-Eat products, CCL cooking temperature for microbial would be based on time/temp lethality charts.

Dear KTD,

Upon determination that a Food Safety Hazard (FSH) is reasonably likely to occur, you have to determine control measures.

I don't disagree but from a HACCP / CCP perspective, the (probabilistic) decision also includes the severity of the possible consequences.

You then have to determine the amount and method of control to eliminate, reduce, or prevent the FSH from existing past the CCP location in the process flow.

It also depends on yr definition of CCP. The above text does not comply with Codex for example.

I assume that in yr example of raw poultry, you are accepting that the finished product is not necessarily Salmonella free and any occurence will be destroyed by the end-user's cooking procedure. I also assume that you do not issue a product specification which states otherwise. (just curious )

Rgds / Charles.C

Charles:

You are correct - the risk assessment must take into account both the likelihood (probability) and severity. Little too anxious to get to the CCP discussion.

I have to remind myself on occasion that we practice 'regulatory', rather than scientific, HACCP in US plants under USDA jurisdiction. In my plants, the final product is raw poultry which is assumed to be contaminated to at least some degree with Salmonella (and Campy, if current USDA thinking has its way). All products are labeled as NRTE with cooking instrcutions to achieve minimum 6-log Salmonella lethality.

The reference can be from local authority regulations, Federal regulations of the country, international standard or scientific evidence.

i hope this helps.

Ajay

Dear KTD,

All products are labeled as NRTE with cooking instrcutions to achieve minimum 6-log Salmonella lethality.

Interesting, i didn't know anyone/anywhere did that. My first reaction is that there must be a lot of mystified housewives around (but maybe not in USA ).

Is this another federal / local regulation or strictly yr own initiative ?

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear friend
For selection of critical limit you have several ways:
- Getting information from your country responsible authorities like : Ministery of health ,food safety department
- Getting information from international organizations guides like: Codex Alimentarious
- Getting information from refrence books
- Getting information from experts
For example : we produce Tuna fish caning and in retort or outokluve we need: Temprature 121 deg celcius for 60 minute in 15 PSI
These are critical limits for this part of our process.
We select it according to local authority and international standards.
Regards
Mahmood

If you had a physical hazard concern, you would evaluate the control (say a filter screen) and determine empirically, by regulation, or literature review, what screen size is needed to prevent the hazardous particulates from passing through.

This is at the core of our HACCP plans. In case it is useful for anyone else there is FDA information that suggests 7mm is the criticial limit for maximum dimension of a foreign body that would constitute a health hazard:

http://www.fda.gov/I...anual/UCM074554

In Europe there is some Dutch work (attached) that considers hazards to small children and goes with 2mm as the limit. We therefore adopted 2mm for our HACCP plans and the largest screen we use is 1000 micron i.e. 1mm. If anyone has further info around physical hazard limits and control I would be grateful to add it to my "HACCP Supporting Info" file. Thanks.

Dear friend
For selection of critical limit you have several ways:
- Getting information from your country responsible authorities like : Ministery of health ,food safety department
- Getting information from international organizations guides like: Codex Alimentarious
- Getting information from refrence books
- Getting information from experts
For example : we produce Tuna fish caning and in retort or outokluve we need: Temprature 121 deg celcius for 60 minute in 15 PSI
These are critical limits for this part of our process.
We select it according to local authority and international standards.
Regards
Mahmood

To establish critical limits in canning, you would also need to have a competent authority validate that the time and temperature used in the process is effective. This would include heat distribution studies on the retort to develop a specific Scheduled Process
Independent lab analysis of the finished product can also be used to determine/verify that the "limits are appropriate" to control the identified hazards.