Vulnerability Assessment and HACCP
Hello All,
First of all Merry Christmas to all.
A very simple question: should the vulnerability assessment be an integrated part of HACCP or these two assessments should be complete different?
The company I work for is an importer/ripener/distributor of bananas, and when I set up the vulnerability assessment separately from the HACCP, I have been absent for the company for the last 6 months, so the person that replace me has integrated the vulnerability assessment in the HACCP.
Basically I would like your opinions if this is the way going forward or should we have distinctive assessments?
Regards,
Hi Barbara,
We keep our HACCP and Vulnerability/Threat assessments separate. The VA is updated frequently (every 2 months), while we expect to review our HACCP annually (unless processes change or ...). They cover separate aspects of food security after all.
VACCP and HACCP are two different methodologies to control Food Security and Food Safety hazards respectively. Compiling both systems together would lead a lot of ambiguity. In our organization, we compile those program/ plan separately.
Hello Barbara,
HACCP is for food safety and VACCP is for intentional adulteration/food defense. It is done separately.
regards,
redfox
Hi All,
Sorry to be a little pessimistic but afaik the interpretation of all the acronyms discussed in this thread may vary with source. None IMO are absolute.
To put it in a more practical way, strictly speaking, unless the source is noted/understood, the terminologies are all potentially confusable.
For example, organisations like Codex,NACMCF,PAS,ISO,GFSI,SQF,USFDA all have their own "flavours" of some or all of HACCP/VACCP/TACCP/VA etc
PS - Happy New Year !
Hi
IMO as far as you can keep this understandabel I can imagine that it can be the same analyzes. Food Farud is very often food safety risk and this way it should be consider. But the VACCP should be complex analyze of the risk which might occure at each step of Supply CHain. YOu should consider your suppliers, frauds history, economic factor which may affect the raw materials, etc . HACCP analyzes considers different aspects/risks. THe concept as it is can be in the same form of presentation of the anlyzes fo VA and HACCP.
Hello Barbara,
When doing VA, assume that when the fraudulent act occurs there will always be an effect (severity) on the product and to the consumer. Therefore severity is not included in VA but the detectability (how detectable the fraud) of the fraudulent activity. Ex: Likelihood of occurrence x detectability .
VACCP and HACCP must be done separately because some fraudulent activity not necessarily possesses food safety hazards. Horse meat scandal as an example did not harm the consumer safety but consumer were misled and shortchange because the bought burger (thinking it was beef patties) with much cheaper horse meat patties.
Hope this could help.
regards,
redfox
Thank you all for your replies.
I agree that both Vulnerability Assessment and HACCP should be done separately, as it was stated each cover different aspects of food safety and defence. :thumbup:
Your system will probably be easier to review, update and audit if you keep the documentation for vulnerability assessments (plus controls) separate to your HACCP documents. Easier auditing = lower costs!
Put them within the same document system (or manual), but in separate sections.
Karen