HACCP

Question 1

What is total quality management?

Answer 1

Total quality management is the application of management methods and human resources to control all processes with the objective of achieving continuous improvement in quality

Question 2

What is a hazard?

Answer 2

A hazard is the ability to cause injury or illness

Question 3

List at least four chemical hazards.

Answer 3

Chemical hazard examples: toxins of natural origins, intentionally added chemicals, allergens, pesticides, antibiotics, and cleaning chemicals

Question 4

List at least four biological hazards.

Answer 4

Biological hazard examples: bacteria, yeast, molds, parasites, and viruses

Question 5

What is a risk?

Answer 5

A risk is the likelihood of that scenario to occur

Question 6

What is severity?

Answer 6

Severity is the consequence of that scenario

Question 7

What is HACCP and what does it stand for?

Answer 7

HACCP is a systematic approach to ensure food safety - it stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points

Question 8

What are the goals of HACCP?

Answer 8

The goals of HACCP are: to destroy, eliminate, or reduce the hazard, prevent (re)contamination, and inhibit growth or toxin production

Question 9

What are the seven principles of HACCP?

Answer 9

The seven principles of HACCP are conduct a hazard analysis, identify the critical control points, determine the critical limits, establish monitoring procedures, take corrective actions, document the HACCP system, verify the HACCP system

Question 10

What is a potentially hazardous food and what are its requirements?

Answer 10

A potentially hazardous food is any food or ingredient, including synthetic ingredients, capable of supporting rapid growth of infectious or toxigenic microorganisms - water activity > 0.85 and pH > 4.6

Question 11

What is the difference between a product and process flow diagram?

Answer 11

A product flow diagram traces the physical movement of the product through the system while a process flow diagram is the sequence of process steps

Question 12

What is hazard analysis?

Answer 12

Hazard analysis is the process of collecting and evaluating information on hazards associated with the food under consideration to decide which are significant and must be addressed in the HACCP plan

Question 13

What are the steps of conducting a hazard analysis?

Answer 13

The two steps of conducting a hazard analysis are hazard identification and hazard evaluation

Question 14

What are the three steps of hazard evaluation?

Answer 14

The two steps of hazard evaluation are assessing severity, determining the likelihood of occurrence, and determining if a hazard needs to be addressed in the HACCP plan

Question 15

What is a control measure and what are three examples?

Answer 15

A control measure is any action or activity to prevent, reduce to acceptable levels, or eliminate a hazard - some examples are pasteurization, roasting, metal detection, filters, and acidification

Question 16

What are prerequisite programs?

Answer 16

Prerequisite programs provide the basic environmental and operating conditions that are necessary for the production of safe and wholesome food

Question 17

What are GMPs?

Answer 17

GMPs are good manufacturing practices - they are the basic sanitary and processing requirements necessary to ensure the production of wholesome food

Question 18

What are SSOPs?

Answer 18

SSOPs are sanitation standard operation procedures - they describe the actual procedures that are necessary for implementing prerequisite programs

Question 19

What is a control point?

Answer 19

A control point is any step at which a biological, chemical, or physical factor can be controlled

Question 20

What is a critical control point?

Answer 20

A critical control point is a step at which a control measure can be applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level

Question 21

What is a critical limit?

Answer 21

A critical limit is a maximum or minimum value to which a biological, chemical, or physical parameter must be controlled at a CCP to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level the occurrence of a food safety hazard

Question 22

What are seven examples of a critical limit?

Answer 22

Some examples of a critical limit are temperature, pH, moisture level, line speed, time, water activity, weight, physical dimensions, sanitizer concentration, and viscosity

Question 23

Compare what makes a good and bad CL

Answer 23

A bad CL is costly, time consuming, and requires a specialized laboratory - an example is pasteurization. A good CL is practical with easy and rapid quantification - an example is flow rate

Question 24

What is an operating limit?

Answer 24

An operating limit may be set for quality or non-safety purposes, allows a process adjustment before critical limit is exceeded, and avoids critical limit deviations and need for corrective actions