RISK ASSESSMENT AND RISK MANAGEMENT OF FO OD-PRODUCTION ACCORDING TO THE HACCP CONCEPT

The volume of official hygiene regulations for food processing establi shments has been growing continously over the past 20 to 30 years. Thi s led to a decrease in hygiene risk awareness in food processing estab lishments which was partly replaced by a strong reliance on legislativ e measures in food hygiene. After experiences in industrialized nation s had shown that even numerous and detailed hygiene regulations could not prevent the increase of infections and intoxications of consumers by food products, new solutions had to be found. On the one hand, the implementation of intensified control measures by the producers themse lves is required. Such a control must then be ''controlled'' by the st ate authorities. On the other hand, the so-called HACCP (Hazard Analys is and Critical Control Point) system has been introduced as a new qua lity assurance principle for the avoidance of hearth hazards. This con cept was developed in the 1960s in the United States of America in ord er to produce safe foods for the space programme. For the production o f a particular food according to the HACCP system informations on haza rds and situations leading to their presence are collected and evaluat ed in order to decide which are significant for food safety and theref ore should be addressed in the HACCP plan. According to this analysis the necessary preventive measures which lead to the prevention, elimin ation or reduction to an acceptable lever of identified health hazards have to be defined. All steps of food processing have to be included in the HACCP system. Raw materials, storage of foods, types of distrib ution and the intented usage of the final product by the consumer have to be considered in this system. However, the introduction of the HAC CP system into European hygiene regulations does not constitute an ent irely new development. It can rather be regarded as a renaissance of t raditional scientific concepts. This is demonstrated by the example of drinking milk processing as it was practised sixty years ago.