HACCP for Storage and Distribution Frozen Product

Good afternoon,

need your help withn some questions I have. I'm working for a Small and Medium Company in Canada and we're looking to implement an HACCP Plan. We currently do storage and distribution of frozen products (ice cream) for only one company. There are a lot of sku, but they're all similar as ice cream, frozen yogourt and novelties use the same kind of packaging and need the same conditions to be stored. The products are already packaged, the producer delivers them to us and we store them until we dispacth them to our clients.

-Could we manage all the skus as one product for the HACCP plan as the components/conditions are very similar?
-To be honest, the only CCP I see are the temperature when the producer delivers the products, the temperature where we store the products and the temperature of the trailers when it's being dispatch. Am I missing anyhting else?

-What would be the Pre-Requisite?


Thanks a lot for your help!

I would caution you on developing a HACCP plan for the "sake" of having a HACCP plan. This plan is intended to identify and control a hazard which without control may result in sickness or leathality to a living entitiy. If your ice cream melting poses that type of risk then it could be identified as a CCP. A sound program in the future will require a fully validated CCP, thus outlining the Biological, Physical, or Chemical risk, as opposed to listing the risk. Example, if the ice cream thaws and refreezes due to lack of temperature control the result could be Salmonella exposure. Here you would be listing the actual organism which you are guarding against. I have seen a lot of watered down HACCP programs, just to say I have a HACCP program. You might consider a stout set of SOP's which require the temperature on receipt and holding through distribution to be monitored, recorded routinely. Adding corrective action should a quality point fail would be sufficient. You are on the right track. Good Luck and Best Wishes for a safe program.

I think PRP is the key to your facility. you need to control your premises, receiving, storage and shipping, preventative maintenance, sanitation, pest control, allergen, traceability and personal hygiene. As for HACCP plan, I don't think maintaining temperature can eliminate/reduce biological hazard of the products, so CCP is not applicable. A good temperature monitoring system in PRP should be sufficient.

I think PRP is the key to your facility. you need to control your premises, receiving, storage and shipping, preventative maintenance, sanitation, pest control, allergen, traceability and personal hygiene. As for HACCP plan, I don't think maintaining temperature can eliminate/reduce biological hazard of the products, so CCP is not applicable. A good temperature monitoring system in PRP should be sufficient.

I think PRP is the key to your facility. you need to control your premises, receiving, storage and shipping, preventative maintenance, sanitation, pest control, allergen, traceability and personal hygiene. As for HACCP plan, I don't think maintaining temperature can eliminate/reduce biological hazard of the products, so CCP is not applicable. A good temperature monitoring system in PRP should be sufficient.

Point of information, CCP also includes *prevent,* not just eliminate/reduce. Therefore, holding temperature could be determined to be the measure of a CCP in certain cases.

Thanks for your responses guys.

Would anyone have an example of a written PRP? It's quite easy to find good documentation on HACCP Plan, but I havent been able to find the same type of documentation for PRP.

I would caution you on developing a HACCP plan for the "sake" of having a HACCP plan. This plan is intended to identify and control a hazard which without control may result in sickness or leathality to a living entitiy. If your ice cream melting poses that type of risk then it could be identified as a CCP. A sound program in the future will require a fully validated CCP, thus outlining the Biological, Physical, or Chemical risk, as opposed to listing the risk. Example, if the ice cream thaws and refreezes due to lack of temperature control the result could be Salmonella exposure. Here you would be listing the actual organism which you are guarding against. I have seen a lot of watered down HACCP programs, just to say I have a HACCP program. You might consider a stout set of SOP's which require the temperature on receipt and holding through distribution to be monitored, recorded routinely. Adding corrective action should a quality point fail would be sufficient. You are on the right track. Good Luck and Best Wishes for a safe program.

I know we have to list the specific organism to be guarded against in our plan. My point was, since the products we receive are already in their packages and there is no manutention involved, the only risk I can think of is the lack of temperature control.

Would a daily monitoring approach be sufficient for us? Monitor the temperature of the storage cooler and the trailers before loading our products.

Absolutely agree....prevent, reduce or eliminate, although with establishing the Critical Control Point on the grounds for prevention, one still has to establish the "hazard" he is preventing. I do not see at this point that the hazard has been established.

Point of information, CCP also includes *prevent,* not just eliminate/reduce. Therefore, holding temperature could be determined to be the measure of a CCP in certain cases.

Dear Mathieu,

The textbook answer is via your risk assessment.

Taking traditional yoghurt as example, chilled storage, per se, is only rarely regarded as a CCP in the general literature. Frozen product probably even less likely.

Two examples below –

yoghurt, storage, distribution.pdf   229.42KB   239 downloads
yoghurt flow chart.png   68.88KB   35 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C

I know we have to list the specific organism to be guarded against in our plan. My point was, since the products we receive are already in their packages and there is no manutention involved, the only risk I can think of is the lack of temperature control.

Would a daily monitoring approach be sufficient for us? Monitor the temperature of the storage cooler and the trailers before loading our products.

Monitoring your storage coolers and trailers is essential. I sell temperature loggers and would argue that they are your best option both in terms of reliability and time saving.

But you must also ensure that product is not left outside the areas being monitored. I know of a number of places that have been penalised for leaving items out for extended periods. Look at what is happening on the loading dock.

It is very easy to prove that each step of the supply chain is compliant, but you need to also ensure they all fit together. It is well worth using a logger to monitor the process from beginning to end to find out if you do have gaps in your process.