After fighting and winning over this tough pandemic, we are at a stage where the world is coming back to normal. It is time that we pay more attention to safety and hygiene. As food is the most essential ingredient of our life, we should be focused towards food safety. Whether it is the restaurants serving food or street foods or foods served at business conferences, the food handlers should be ready with their safety measures.
While we have prerequisite programs in Alberta since a long time, only a few food handlers understand its importance. It is a regulatory shift that happened years ago and it always remains a key part in the overall food safety and management. It was during 1995, the seafood HACCP regulation was enacted in US and it marked a major milestone in the history of food safety.
First, it established prerequisite programs, which could be used to address potential food safety hazards. The individuals who were working in with HACCP during the 80s and 90s remember plans that had some 10-20 critical control points. Some points in the plans seemed essential for ensuring production of safe foods; operations like product identification, handwashing in ready-to-eat operations, cleaning and sanitization and many more. The entire idea was to keep the food safe and hygienic regardless of its state.
However, the plans seemed large and they were prone to failure and experienced deviations. Although they were not food safety failures, but wherever the deviation was observed, the food was deemed unsafe to consume. Sanitation and routine maintenance remained at the core of these prerequisite programs.
The regulation also defined six categories of prerequisites programs. They were preventive maintenance, product recall and traceability, product identification, establishment of good manufacturing practices, education and training, and development of necessary sanitation standard operating procedures. The regulation was mandatory to follow by all the food handlers and it also defined eight specific areas where seafood processors needed to establish the programs no matter what. They are:
Safety of water used in the manufacturing of ice.
Condition and cleanliness of food contact surfaces, including utensils, gloves and garments.
Prevention of cross-contamination.
Maintenance of handwashing, hand sanitization and toilet facilities.
Protection of food, food contact surfaces and packaging from adulteration.
Exclusion of pests from the plant.
Control over employee health.
The food prerequisite programs in Alberta also looks after these things and we are glad to follow every single norm stated there. If you want more help, you can reach out to us.