Food Safety Terminology

Everyone seems to be throwing around words…HACCP, HACCP-based, GAPs. What does it all mean? The following are a few words that you may hear when discussing food safety.

Codex or the Codex Alimentarius Commission is an organization formed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Comprised of representatives from 165 countries, their job is to develop food safety standards. They are in the process of developing basic conditions and practices expected for producing safe, wholesome fresh fruit and vegetables intended for international trade.

Critical Control Point: a point, process step or procedure at which control can be applied and a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated or reduced.

Eurepgap: is a management program developed in Europe for fruit and vegetables. It combines Good Agricultural Practices, Integrated Crop Management (ICM) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices.

Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs): are basic environmental and operational conditions that are necessary for the production of safe, wholesome fruit and vegetables. The term includes practices used in growing, harvesting, sorting, packing and storage operations.

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs): term used to describe general practices to reduce food safety hazards. Often used simultaneously with GAPs and include practices used in sorting, packing, storage and transportation operations.

HACCP: stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points. It is a management system that identifies, evaluates and controls hazards that are significant for food safety.

HACCP-based program: management system that is based on the principles of HACCP. The key difference between the two is that HACCP-based programs are generic (that is, for a commodity sector) whereas HACCP programs are specific to the site/grower. To give you an example, an apple producer on an HACCP-based program, will have identified for him the majority of hazards associated with apple production. However, there may be a hazard (e.g. a producer has equipment that is not typically used in apple production and it may introduce metal shards) that may not be identified in the generic program but it would be identified if he was on his own specific HACCP program.

Hazard: a biological (e.g. bacteria), chemical (e.g. antibiotic) or physical (e.g. glass) substance that has the potential to cause an adverse health effect if found on or in the fruit or vegetable.

SQF: Safe Quality Food is a management program. It combines HACCP and elements of ISO 9000. It is now an internationally recognized program initially developed by the Agriculture Department of Western Australia.

Traceback: a method used to determine the source(s) and distribution of a food implicated in a foodborne outbreak and to identify the possible points where contamination could have occurred.