INTEGRATING HAZARD ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL CONTROL POINT (HACCP) AND SANITATION FOR VERIFIABLE FOOD SAFETY

Reliable, verifiable food safety requires the application of technolog ically correct methods in a systematic way. This requires making a dis tinction between sanitation and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control P oint (HACCP) and integrating these two systems into one food safety sy stem. Although sanitation and HACCP share the same goal of producing s afe food products, the focus of sanitation is on the environment surro unding the food to prevent contamination, whereas the focus of HACCP i s on controlling hazards intrinsic to food materials. Together they pr ovide the organizational base for applying the correct methods and pro cedures to ensure and verify that food served is safe for foodservice clients. These approaches also provide records that demonstrate that f ood safety measures have been planned and completed as planned. One wa y to demonstrate a responsible approach to food safety is to understan d the differences between sanitation and HACCP and to build approaches to food safety that use both of these systems. The resulting integrat ed system has a better chance of controlling all the hazards than eith er system by itself.