CCPs, Critical Limits, and Monitoring

This module is specific to HACCP Awareness and should be read carefully before continuing.

• A Critical Control Point is a step where control can prevent, eliminate, or reduce a significant hazard to an acceptable level.
• Cooking may be a CCP when it is needed to destroy harmful bacteria.
• Metal detection may be a CCP when it controls metal contamination in packed products.
• A critical limit must be measurable, such as temperature, time, pH, chlorine level, or detector sensitivity.
• Monitoring should be planned before the process starts, not invented after a failure.
• Monitoring records should show the result, time, date, product or batch, and responsible person.
• If monitoring is not done, the business cannot prove the CCP was controlled.
• Monitoring frequency should be enough to detect loss of control before unsafe food reaches customers.
• Equipment used for monitoring, such as thermometers, should be suitable and checked or calibrated.
• Staff should know exactly what to do when a result is outside the critical limit.