FROM QUALITY-CONTROL TO QUALITY ASSURANCE

Hygiene and its monitoring are becoming an increasingly important part of food production, especially now. that the EC Directives are to com e in force. A food company can only introduce a hygiene plan if it ope rates certain monitoring systems. The HACCP concept requires that risk s are assessed and safety is monitored during production at critical c ontrol points (CCP). Monitoring of CCPs should be performed by using m ethods that are reliable, fast, direct and simple to handle such that corrective action can be implemented immediately. Cleaning is frequent ly identified as a CCP and rapid hygiene tests provide an effective mo nitoring and verification procedure that provides assurance and confid ence.