3 replies to this topic

[QCQA4ME]

Greetings,

We are currently reworking our HACCP plan to included newlyinstalled equipment; during this review we are reassessing the entire plan. The biological hazard analysis is where we arehaving a hang up. Since we handle rawalmonds we are trying to determine if Salmonella is a “significant’ hazard.While it has been determined by industry experts that almonds have acontamination rate of around 1-2% (depending on who you talk to) our processonly includes removal of foreign matter and physical defects, sizing and industrial packaging of raw almonds. Per the industry’s DV program we only ship product tocustomers in North America that have validated methods of reducing/removing microorganismsto safe/acceptable levels, and there are only a small number of exportcustomers that may process and pack our product in its raw state withoutfurther treatment. All that being saidcould we safely determine Salmonella is not a significant risk?




Thank you for the help!

[Charles.C]

Greetings,

We are currently reworking our HACCP plan to included newlyinstalled equipment; during this review we are reassessing the entire plan. The biological hazard analysis is where we arehaving a hang up. Since we handle rawalmonds we are trying to determine if Salmonella is a “significant’ hazard.While it has been determined by industry experts that almonds have acontamination rate of around 1-2% (depending on who you talk to) our processonly includes removal of foreign matter and physical defects, sizing and industrial packaging of raw almonds. Per the industry’s DV program we only ship product tocustomers in North America that have validated methods of reducing/removing microorganismsto safe/acceptable levels, and there are only a small number of exportcustomers that may process and pack our product in its raw state withoutfurther treatment. All that being saidcould we safely determine Salmonella is not a significant risk?

Thank you for the help!

Dear QCQ,

This post seems sort of identical to http://www.ifsqn.com...dpost__p__50775

I guess the situation remains the same.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Philips]

I am not an expert in the field but as far as I am concerned, the significance of any hazard is the result of its frequency of occurence and the severity. If the frequency is high and upon occurence, its severe, then its a significant risk. I think this will go further into what do you consider as a high, mediume or low occurence; is it once a week, once a month or once in six months respectively. What if it occurs, again consider the consequencies, will it cause death, illness or just a destabilised nature in digestion; then from the results you conclude whether its significant or insignificant. Check on that.

[QCQA4ME]

I am not an expert in the field but as far as I am concerned, the significance of any hazard is the result of its frequency of occurence and the severity. If the frequency is high and upon occurence, its severe, then its a significant risk. I think this will go further into what do you consider as a high, mediume or low occurence; is it once a week, once a month or once in six months respectively. What if it occurs, again consider the consequencies, will it cause death, illness or just a destabilised nature in digestion; then from the results you conclude whether its significant or insignificant. Check on that.

Thank you Philip,

That makes perfect sense, and now seems totally obvious. I think we were just all over thinking it ...Thanks for the "reset"

Have a wonderful day...