Logistics plays an important role in the food industry. From storing and transporting products to distribution, moving consumables involves ensuring that food is safe throughout the journey.
HACCP is a system used to identify and control risks throughout a supply chain, helping to keep products in good condition at every stage.
Proper HACCP implementation can help your logistics business stand out. But how do HACCP and logistics work together? Here’s everything you need to know about the topic.
What Is HACCP?
The logistics industry has its fair share of acronyms, so it’s no surprise if this one stumps you.
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, and using this method to manage food safety hazards is essential in preventing foodborne illnesses. If that doesn’t make it any clearer, here’s an overview of the seven principles of HACCP…
Hazard Analysis
The first stage of HACCP is to identify hazards that could make the food goods unsafe for consumption. These potential risks could be physical things like glass or metal fragments, biological hazards like bacteria, or chemical hazards like allergens.
Critical Control Points
The next step is to determine critical control points. This means identifying points in the existing processes where hazards can be addressed. Hazards can be dealt with through elimination, reduction or prevention.
Critical Limits
Defining critical limits means establishing specific, measurable criteria that each hazard can be assessed against at each control point to maintain low-risk food safety levels. These criteria usually revolve around temperature, time or pH level.
Monitoring
Once you have established the hazards, set the control points and created limits to measure them by, you next implement monitoring procedures. These processes will keep track of the critical control points to ensure they remain within the critical limits.
Corrective Actions
What happens when a critical limit is breached? Corrective actions should focus on the cause of the breach and prevent potentially unsafe products from travelling onward through the supply chain.
Verification
To ensure your HACCP system is working well, implement procedures such as record reviews, tests and audits to verify that the plan is understood and being followed to the letter. If your hazards are not being controlled properly, you risk your food being unsafe and unfit for consumption.
Record-Keeping
Good record-keeping habits are crucial for demonstrating compliance with food safety regulations, but they also help address safety issues if they arise. Keep copies of formal processes, monitoring sheets, corrective actions and verification procedures within easy reach as well as digital versions.
What Is HACCP’s Application In Logistics?
So, HACCP and logistics… How exactly does the HACCP process work through a supply chain?
Let us highlight four main areas of the logistics process where HACCP principles help keep foods safe for consumption.
1 – Transportation
Here’s how HACCP principles keep food safe when in transit.
Temperature Control
Perishable goods need to be held at appropriate temperatures to prevent bacterial growth. This could be refrigeration or freezing depending on the food stuff.
Vehicle Sanitation
Cleaning and sanitising vehicles between loads is a key part of avoiding cross-contamination and bacteria growth.
Monitoring And Recording
Efficient and diligent record keeping of temperatures, transit times and routes helps you to keep track of critical control points.
2 – Storage
Food goods are stored at different points in a supply chain, but how do HACCP and logistics processes work together here?
Stock Rotation
A FIFO, or ‘first in first out’ system, ensures that your oldest products are used first. This not only reduces waste but ensures food safety is maintained effectively.
Pest Control
Keeping your workplace clean, tidy and pest-free prevents potential contamination.
Temperature Monitoring
Monitoring, monitoring, monitoring. Rigorous checking and recording storage temperatures helps you to maintain high product quality.
3 – Handling
Staff handling foods are at high risk of contaminating them and must work in line with strict food safety processes.
Personal Hygiene
All employees must follow proper handwashing practices and adhere to strict personal hygiene protocols, like tying long hair back, not wearing jewellery and covering cuts and small injuries with waterproof plasters or bandages.
Cross-Contamination Prevention
Using separate chopping boards and utensils for different types of foods is imperative in preventing the transfer of harmful bacteria. Many establishments use colour-coded equipment to aid in this.
Training
Educating all staff members on proper handling techniques to minimise the risk of cross-contamination and damage. Training should be reviewed and updated regularly to reinforce food safety practices.
4 – Additional Considerations:
Here are some extra logistics factors to bear in mind.
Packaging
Check over all packaging products to ensure it is intact and suitable for its intended use. Packaging should prevent spoiling and damage in transit.
Traceability
Keep those records! Maintain records of where products have come from and where they end up going so that any issues can be identified and products recalled if needed.
Why HACCP Matters In Logistics
There are four key pillars to the relationship between HACCP and logistics.
Food Safety
Top of the list is the most obvious reason why HACCP and logistics go together. Using a detailed HACCP plan effectively prevents contamination along the supply chain, ensuring safe foods reach the hands of customers.
Risk Management
HACCP helps identify and manage risks, reducing the likelihood of recalls or legal issues. This protects your business’ reputation and saves you thousands of potential pounds spent in the event of costly litigation.
Efficiency
Streamlining your logistics process with HACCP principles, like introducing critical control points and operating a FIFO protocol, improves operations and reduces waste. This often goes hand in hand with cost savings.
Confidence
Using a HACCP plan demonstrates your company’s competency in food logistics, earning you a shining reputation. Consumers are increasingly concerned about food safety, and a company’s commitment to HACCP can be a major differentiator in the market.
How To Learn More About HACCP In Logistics
Envesca has worked with many major logistics organisations to support their HACCP training. With specialised knowledge to ensure your training is specific and helpful, we offer the following courses that can be tailored to logistics for a comprehensive training experience…
Highfield Level 2 Award in HACCP for Manufacturing
The Highfield Level 2 HACCP qualification is a one-day training course that upskills attendees on the basics of HACCP.
From learning to identify, control and monitor critical control points and recognising when critical limits are breached to understanding how to document and record information to support an HACCP system, they will come away ready and raring to improve food safety management in your business.
Highfield Level 3 Award in HACCP for Manufacturing
The Highfield Level 3 HACCP qualification is a two-day training course that shifts focus to food safety legal requirements and how to design and develop a suitable HACCP plan for your business.
All Envesca training courses can be delivered at your premises for up to 12 candidates, at an alternative location of your choice or online via Zoom..
Don’t Need A Training Course?
There are other ways Envesca can help logistics companies with HACCP implementation…
Risk Assessments
Getting risk assessments wrong, or making mistakes, leaves your staff vulnerable to accidents and your business vulnerable to legal issues.
Work with Envesca for a professional hand putting your risk assessment together without the stress.
Developing Bespoke HACCP Plans
Off-the-shelf HACCP plans may not fit your food safety needs. Envesca will take time to understand the hazards unique to your working environment and help you capture the complexity of the risks.
Ongoing Support
Review of your risk assessments and HACCP plan is crucial and should be completed regularly. Certain events, such as the introduction of new equipment or a change in personnel, can prompt a review.
Envesca offers a friendly, comprehensive consultation service on all things health and safety so that you can rest assured compliance is taken care of, leaving you to focus on core business activities.
The Ultimate Guide to Passing the Level 4 Food Safety Examination
If you’ve got a question or query, please contact our super friendly team, they will be delighted to help you!
Simply get in touch via phone or email.
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Training Available
Envesca offer a number of different training courses, which offer advice and guidance on these topics.
Highfield Level 2 Award in HACCP for Manufacturing
This Level 2 HACCP for Manufacturing course will help you to understand the importance of implementing a HACCP system in a food manufacturing environment.Highfield Level 3 Award in HACCP Training for Food Manufacturing
This course is for anyone with responsibility for the development of a food safety management system based on the Codex principles of HACCP.Highfield Level 4 Award in HACCP for Management
This course aims to give you the knowledge needed to develop, implement and evaluation a CODEX-based HACCP Food Safety Management System.Highfield Level 3 Award in HACCP for Catering
This one-day Level 3 HACCP for Catering course will enable you to create a food safety management system based on the Codex HACCP principles.Share this article with your social Community.
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