HACCP Compliance made simple with CRS

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) compliance is a key component of ensuring the safety and traceability of food products. The Food Standards Agency of Ireland (FSAI) describes HACCP as “a system you must put in place to ensure the food you produce is safe. This system is called a food safety management system and must be based on the principles of HACCP.” It is also noted that "HACCP is a legal requirement but will also benefit your business."

The FSAI provide a Safe Catering Pack for ensuring you have suitable HACCP procedures in place to match the legal requirements.

If you are unsure of how to begin with HACCP compliance, have a look at the Safe Catering Pack linked at the bottom of the page. It will make being compliant a more simple task that just takes a little bit of time and consideration of your procedures.

The benefits of HACCP Compliance

The FSAI lists the benefits of HACCP compliance with a simple to remember mnemonic device, SAFE FOOD.

  • Saves your business money in the long run
  • Avoids you poisoning your customers
  • Food safety standards increase
  • Ensures you are compliant with the law
  • Food quality standards increase
  • Organises your process to produce safe food
  • Organises your staff promoting teamwork and efficiency
  • Due diligence defence in court.

(Source: FSAI Website)

Prerequisite Hygeine Requirements

The FSAI provides a list of 10 prerequisites of hygeine which must be in place where appropriate. These are listed below:

  1. Cleaning and Sanitation
  2. Maintenance
  3. Personnel Hygiene and Training
  4. Pest Control
  5. Plant and Equipment
  6. Premises and Structure
  7. Services (compressed air, ice, steam, ventilation, water etc.) 
  8. Storage, Distribution and Transport
  9. Waste Management
  10. Zoning(physical separation of activities to prevent potential food contamination) 

(Source: FSAI Website)

How a Rmoni cloud based remote monitoring system can help your ongoing HACCP compliance

Step 4 - System to monitor the Critial Control Points (CCPs)

A monitoring system can take many forms, for a number of food service and food production businesses it can involve a spike probe or an LED temperature reading of product. It may even just looking at a thermometer display mounted to the door of the fridge and making a note of the reading. With a Rmoni system, this is taken care of for you automatically. It can take readings as often as you require, many of our customers have readings at every 15-20 minutes. This gives you a good overview and allows you to spot issues as soon as possible without a data overload.

Step 5 - Establish the corrective action to be taken when monitoring indicates that a particular CCP is not under control

In many circumstances the corrective action involves communicating with a member of staff or an external maintenance team to rectify the situation. However, if the problem occurs when there is not a scheduled measurement (for example: overnight) then the problem can go unnoticed and products may spoil before the opportunity to take preventative action. Your Rmoni system will monitor your environment as you require and has a number of alert options, including buzzer sounding, SMS and after a recent update - voice calling.

Step 6 - Establish procedures for verification to confirm the HACCP system is working effectively

It is important to ensure that all your thermometers and environment monitoring equipment are fully calibrated. CRS work with calibration partners across Ireland who are able to come on site and fully calibrate your Rmoni system in situ to ensure that it meets all validation requirements.  You will be provided calibration certificates to verify that your system has been calibrated and provided a review date to ensure calibration is maintained.

Step 7 - Establish documentation concerning all procedures and records appropriate to these principles and their application

The cloud based software supporting your Rmoni environment monitoring solution will allow you to set automated scheduled reporting, on the fly ad-hoc reporting and a quick overview dashboard which will provide all the information you require to show to auditors or for internal reviews of procedures.

 

For more about Rmoni cloud based environment monitoring solutions, click here.

For more about FSAI guidelines on HACCP compliance, click here.

To order your Safe Catering Pack from FSAI, click here.