Evaluation of the CFIA's Meat Programs
Final Report
Annex H: Responsibilities of the CFIA Related to HACCP
Prerequisite programs
There are seven categories of prerequisite programs, which include such things as: Premises (e.g., the building must be protected against potential sources of external contaminants), Personnel (e.g., requirements for training in food hygiene), Sanitation and Pest Control, and Recall Procedures.
HACCP Plans
The heart of a HACCP plan is identifying critical control points (CCPs) – points or steps in the production process where the process needs to be specified in detail or an action needs to be taken in order to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level. CCPs are identified following a detailed analysis of potential hazards in the establishment that are not adequately controlled by prerequisite programs. For example, the cooking step is considered a CCP because control measures are necessary to deal with the potential hazard of pathogens surviving the cooking process.
Critical limits are specified for each CCP. Critical limits are criteria that separate acceptability from unacceptability. These parameters, if properly maintained, ensure the safety of the product. For example, critical limits at the cooking stage could include the specific time and temperature for cooking the product. The HACCP plan also includes monitoring procedures for each CCP to make sure the process continues to operate within the critical limits.
Finally, HACCP plans have to include validation procedures – methods, procedures, sampling, tests, and other evaluations (in addition to monitoring) to determine whether a control measure at a CCP is operating as intended.
CFIA HACCP system reviews
In order to verify that the operators' HACCP Systems meets the regulatory requirements, CFIA inspectors conduct verification activities using the Compliance Verification System (CVS), which is a standardized risk-based inspection tool that lays out verification tasks with detailed procedures and guidance for inspectors on the verification process.
Daily, CFIA inspectors verify the implementation and effectiveness of the operators' HACCP Systems as per defined national frequency which may vary from daily to once every two years depending on the risk associated with the verification task and historical compliance records.
Once every two years and whenever an operator submits a new HACCP plan (following any significant changes) or follow-up is required after a food safety recall, a CFIA team that is led by an Food Safety Enhancement Program Specialist verifies that the operator's HACCP System:
- is designed to effectively control food safety hazards;
- meets the Food Safety Enhancement Program (FSEP) manual and program requirements, and;
- is reassessed to ensure food safety hazards remain under control.
The in-depth review tasks are designed to focus on specific hazards of concern. These tasks are conducted in situations such as repetitive unsatisfactory test results indicating there may be a health risk associated with a product, or where there is confirmed illness/death cases related to food.
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