How is HACCP and the HACCP International Certification of equipment, materials and services linked?

HACCP International’s scheme is one of ‘product certification’ rather than ‘management system’, and delivers independent, third party, expert confirmation to a food business as to a certified product’s food safety attributes and fitness for use within a facility operating a HACCP based food safety programme. All products that have incidental food contact or present a risk to food safety need to be formally assessed. Our scheme meets this precise need.

Food businesses manage food safety hazards by implementing a management system – a HACCP Programme – which addresses risks from a variety of sources. Some of the sources of food safety hazards, such as ingredients, cleanliness, processing, and staff behaviour are controlled through an in-house procedure. The HACCP Programme will also include a component that manages the risk from suppliers’ products, be they food, packaging equipment or materials. This might be referred to as ‘Vendor Quality Assurance (VQA)’. Food businesses are audited against Management System Standards such as those mentioned above to ensure conformance.

The food safety hazards that arise from food equipment, food room materials and services are addressed in in the HACCP food safety programme. These hazards are best controlled through the VQA and pre-requisite programmes such as ‘supplier/product approval’ which are designed to assure an appropriate, risk assessments and decision process is conducted when considering a product/service and its application. This is where HACCP International’s certification is very useful. It demonstrates a commitment to food safety and give highly recognised third-party assurance as to a products suitability.