Keeping Life Moving
On July 7th 2006 Tayside Contracts received official confirmation that the Tay Cuisine Cook-Chill Unit had achieved external accreditation for the site specific HACCP System. The accreditation is valid for twelve months and requires an Annual Audit to retain accredited status; the latest audit took place in January 2009 following which accredited status was retained. In this article we explain more about this essential award.
What is HACCP?
The term Haccp is an abbreviation for ‘Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points’. Hazard analysis is cited in both European and UK legislation as a key tool in the assurance of safe food production.
It is therefore essential that food companies understand where food safety hazards may occur within their catering process and establish a means to control and monitor the critical points in the process.
HACCP is based on the prevention of food safety problems by means of risk assessment based analysis of the catering operation “What can go wrong and what can we do to prevent it or reduce the likelihood?”
It is accepted by international Authorities as the most effective means of controlling food born disease.
Why is external accreditation neccessary?
Legislation introduced in January 2006, required that all food businesses implement a HACCP based food safety system, relative to their activities.
In order to comply with legislation, catering organisations are required to have external verification that their HACCP is appropriate to their business.
Tayside Contracts took a Corporate decision to go a stage further by seeking an external consultancy that could give considerable credibility to the food safety management system within the Tay Cuisine Cook-Chill Unit.
CCFRA were chosen as the consultants for the development of the HACCP System due to their world standing in the field of food safety science.
What is involed in achieving accreditation?
In January 2004, Tayside Contracts became members of CCFRA. Representatives from Tayside Contracts met with a consultant from CCFRA, to discuss and agree the structured process for the implementation of a HACCP system which would meet the strict criteria as set out in the CCFRA auditing standard.
In the 2 years which followed, HACCP team members met and liaised with CCFRA consultants for advice and guidance on how best to approach the development and implementation of HACCP controls and monitoring and how best to achieve the Audit Standards required to successfully gain accreditation.
Who are CCFRA?
CCFRA is an abbreviation for ‘Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association’. As the worlds largest independent membership based food research and technology organisation, CCFRA offer its members a practical guide to the establishment, development and implementation of a HACCP based food safety assurance system.
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