How can the principles of validation and verification be applied to hazard analysis?

Abstract

The acceptance of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) as the food safety control system of choice by the food industry, governments and regulatory bodies with responsibility for food safety, has lead to the proliferation of HACCP plans on a world wide basis. The adoption of the Codex Alimentarius text (Alinorm 97/13A) as the authoritative text on Principles and Guidelines for HACCP has contributed significantly to a more harmonised approach and agreed terminology, but there is still some lack of clarity over the specific activities of validation and verification. A logical interpretation of the Codex text would lead one to believe that validation is primarily concerned with those activities that evaluate the scientific and technical content of the HACCP plan, whereas verification focuses primarily on procedures required to determine compliance with an operational HACCP system. Using the above criteria this paper looks at the application of validation and verification to the HACCP Principle of Hazard Analysis. Hazard Analysis is concerned primarily with the identification of hazards that are of such a nature that they must be controlled to ensure safe food and must therefore be included in the HACCP plan. As such Hazard Analysis is probably the key HACCP Principle. The paper proposes mechanisms to validate the identification of hazards for inclusion in the HACCP Plan and concludes that validation in particular has a very important role to play in providing both scientific and technical support for hazard selection as well as providing focus for the subsequent development of the HACCP plan.