Based on ISO 22000:2018 Version
The purpose of this article?
To elaborate and giving a clear information to any food safety specialists on how to select and categorize the control measures within the food safety management systems based on ISO 22000:2018 requirements.
Author’s advise
This article is a continuation of a previous article that has been published earlier for differentiating between CCP & OPRP.
Disclaimer
All information provided are from the perspective of the author and to be considered for general information purpose.
Selection and Categorization of Control Measures
Based on the hazard assessment, the organization shall select an appropriate control measure or combination of control measures that will be capable of preventing or reducing the identified significant food safety hazards to defined acceptable levels.
The organization shall categorize the selected identified control measure(s) to be managed as OPRP(s) or as CCPs
(Clause No. 8.5.2.4.1 as per ISO 22000:2018)
Author’s clarification:
The control measures as per ISO 22000:2018 to be managed / categorized as CCP & OPRPs, the organization can select one of them or a combination of both that will be capable of preventing or reducing the identified significant food safety hazards to an acceptable level, this is the GOLDEN RULE in this regard
But you cannot determine the significant food safety hazards without doing appropriate hazard assessment, that’s why
selection & categorization of control measures shall be made based on the outcome of hazard assessment.
Now the Challenge…
What is the Mechanism of Selecting and Categorizing this Control Measures?
The categorization shall be carried out using a systematic approach. For each of the control measures selected, there shall be an assessment of the following:
- the likelihood of failure of its functioning;
- the severity of the consequence in the case of failure of its functioning; this assessment shall include:
- the effect on identified significant food safety hazards;
- the location in relation to other control measure(s);
- whether it is specifically established and applied to reduce the hazards to an acceptable level;
- whether it is a single measure or is part of combination of control measure(s).
(Clause No. 8.5.2.4.1, 8.5.2.4.2 as per ISO 22000:2018)
Based on above requirements
THE SELECTION OF CONTROL MEASURES SHALL BE MADE BASED ON AN ASSESSMENT
Author’s clarification:
When you are looking at the mechanism above, you will observe the following,
- The Decision tree of the codex Alimentarius standard has not been mentioned for determining the CCP, from my point of view this is made as there is no a similar decision tree for determining the OPRPS,
Note: please refer to my previous article on the difference between CCP, OPRP without using the decision tree. - The systematic approach of selecting and categorizing the control measures into CCP and or OPRP is based on
- The likelihood of the control measure failure
- The consequences severity level of that failure
Example:
As a new hygiene officer within a factory for processing frozen vegetables, you have observed that Washing of vegetables with water is not effective, you decided to handle this as per ISO 22000, considering that this step of washing vegetables was considered as OPRP as per the previous hygiene office of that factory , so you can ask yourself the following questions
- Does the washing step of this vegetables is effective? answer is NO (likelihood of the control measure failure is high)
- The severity of the consequences from that failure is high or low for food safety? Answer is high
So, in this case you can focus more on this step of washing the vegetables and create a critical limit, monitor and measure the effectiveness of this washing step regularly through lab. Tests, obviously at this stage this step can be considered as CCP,
BUT once you feel that a system has been established and you observed that the likelihood & severity of failure from this step became low then you can deal with this step as an OPRP again and change your documents accordingly and the frequency of monitoring and measurements can be adjusted accordingly
Summary:
Please keep your food safety managements system more dynamic, realistic based on facts related to monitoring and measurement results of the control measures
In addition, for each control measure, the systematic approach shall include an assessment of the Feasibility of:
- Establishing measurable critical limits and/or measurable/observable action criteria;
- Monitoring to detect any failure to remain within critical limit and/or measurable
/Observable action criteria; - Applying timely corrections in case of failure.
- The decision-making process and results of the selection and categorization of the control measures shall be maintained as documented information.
(Clause No. 8.5.2.4.2 as per ISO 22000:2018
Author’s clarification:
It’s a new approach to add the word feasibility when selecting and categorizing the control measures as per ISO 22000:2018
Feasibility can be related to the cost, or value, etc.
You need to ask yourself the followings:
- Is it feasible to establishing measurable critical limits and/or measurable/observable action criteria for the control measure?
- Is it enough to monitor the control measure or I need also to measure it also?
- Do I need to apply a timely correction in case of failure of that control measure or there is another alternative?
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