Are all biological hazards considered castatrophic in terms of severity?

Hello- I am updating my companies HACCP plans for fresh produce, consumed raw.

We recently updated our hazard matrix to include 5 severity levels:

 

Hello- I am updating my companies HACCP plans for fresh produce, consumed raw.

 

We recently updated our hazard matrix to include 5 severity levels:

Severity 

1. Negligible – Does not meet internal food safety and quality standards

2. Minor – Does not meet internal food safety and quality standard upper/lower thresholds

3. Moderate – Does not meet regulatory requirements, but not likely to cause adverse health consequences 

4. Major – Temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences 

5. Catastrophic – Serious adverse health consequences or death to consumer

 

 

In terms of biological hazards on our HACCP plans, examples: contamination from improper handling from an employee, contamination from irrigation water, contamination from biological plant products, etc.

 

For severity, would the results always be catastrophic when worried about ecoli, listeria, salmonella as pathogenic organisms?

 

Or could some biological hazards be classfied as major?

 

Thanks

 

Hi brerhein,

Frankly, IMHO, some of your set of criteria are ambiguous / not very suitable to be used for a haccp risk matrix,. For example, haccp is safety prioritised so you might consider deleting all occurrences of "Quality".

Please note that -

(1) Listeria spp is not categorized as a biological hazard

(2) (generic) E.coli is not categorized as a biological hazard

(3) Salmonella spp is regarded as a biological hazard.

In previous times,  qualitative separations of the severity of various microbial pathogens was implemented but afaik, nowadays, their severity is typically, uniformly, regarded as "High" or perhaps Very High" depending on yr specific matrix format. IMEX the terminology "Catastrophic" is seldom used as a specific category.

Hi brerhein,

 

Frankly, IMHO, some of your set of criteria are not very suitable to be used for a haccp risk matrix,. For example, haccp is safety prioritised so you might consider deleting all occurrences of "Quality".

is

Please note that -

(1) Listeria spp is not categorized as a biological hazard

(2) (generic) E.coli is not categorized as a biological hazard

(3) Salmonella spp is regarded as a biological hazard.

 

In previous times,  qualitative separations of the severity of various microbial pathogens was implemented but afaik, nowadays, their severity is typically, uniformly, regarded as "High" or perhaps Very High" depending on yr specific matrix format

Thank you for replying! I will definitely remove the quality wording, good catch thank you!

Is the biological hazards listed above set from FDA?

Thank you for replying! I will definitely remove the quality wording, good catch thank you!

 

Is the biological hazards listed above set from FDA?

Afaik, items (1),(3) are ubiquitously adopted in microbiological textbooks. Item (2) IIRC is defined, for example, in the Canadian regulatory Standards but in practice is often inferred by the terminology "E.coli" which is obviously ambiguous inasmuch as the relevant HACCP species are such as E.coli O157:H7, etc

No idea whether FDA publishes an official terminology list, sorry, For pathogens you could refer to their well-known Draft Guidance Appendix which is atttached  in numerous posts on this Forum.

Thank you for replying! I will definitely remove the quality wording, good catch thank you!

 

Is the biological hazards listed above set from FDA?

Biological hazards are set for many ingredients. Appendix 1 of the FSMA document has different hazards associated foods. 

Also another website that may be of help to you: https://www.fda.gov/...-produce-safety

JFI, FDA seem to define generic E.coli via Procedure, eg -

FSMA-Ecoli-Testing-in-Agri-Water.pdf   139.69KB   6 downloads

This basically equates to the distinction as mentioned in (2) of Post 2.