HACCP: How Detailed Do Ingredients Need to be?

I'm updating our HACCP plan and am wondering about ingredient hazards/risks. If I have different kinds of chocolate (ie milk, dark, white), would I be able to put all the chocolate under one entry as long as I list all the hazards? Or should I have each one as a different entry?

Flavours, 8 different flavours - would that be one entry for flavours or 8 for each kind?

What about peanuts and peanut butter? One or two?

Thanks in advance,
AA NNFF

I don't think there is a correct answer to this question. However one thing is IMO certain. An auditor cannot comment negatively if you risk assess each ingredient individually but can raise an eyebrow or two if not. But practically it can be very time consuming to do it individually.

The key to it is when you do a group, you should be sure they share the same intrinsic and extrinsic food safety characteristics. For example Dry Ingredients will normally have the same preservation and deterioration properties including shelf life, storage conditions, impact of humidity, mold growth and so on. In the case of peanuts and peanut butter, these are very different products since the latter contains other ingredients in addition to peanuts and this should be accounted for.

My best advice is use your judgement and have your explanations clear in your mind in the event an audit raises an eyebrow.

George

Thanks for your input, George. You confirmed what I though would be the answer.

I did think that it would be better to do it individually but to save time I wanted to group ingredients.