Sassan Rezaie

Assistant Professor of Microbiology Tehran University of Medical Sciences

As is well known to this audience, the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system is used for food safety and for controlling food processing. I will review the basic aspects of the system that have been widely documented in the scientific literature. I will not attempt to cite the many references that I am sure are well known to our American guests.¹

HACCP is usually referred to as a preventive, documented, and verifiable system. It is preventive because it focuses basically on the entire process and not merely on the final product. It is documented because there are procedure manuals as well as work instructions for implementing HACCP and there is also a record-keeping system for control. Finally, HACCP is verifiable because its effectiveness can be checked and verified by such methods as internal audits and final product examination. This preventive, documented, and verifiable system will control food hazards by identifying and characterizing all food hazards from farm to fork, followed by determining critical control points at which a monitoring system for detecting the hazards triggers corrective action. To implement