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HACCP for Bakeries is here to stay? Regardless of the size of business, food safety programs are essential for bakeries.
Bakery management needs to accept the new reality that major retail and food service customers demand food safety programs such as Good Manufacturing Program (GMPs) or Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) programs.
This trend appears to be continuing and is irreversible. Bakery management that thinks otherwise, particularly if they supply wholesale and food service accounts lives in denial and will soon run out of customers.
What appears to be the objection here? First, management does not seem to understand the benefits. Further, they don’t understand all that technical talk and what it actually means to implement such a program. There are so many questions and unknowns. How will it impact my business, my staff and how will it impact my current day-to-day operation? Will it increase my paperwork and labour costs?
Others, again, believe that a food safety program interferes with free enterprise—just another attempt to destroy small business with unnecessary paperwork. As one CEO explained: “No customer of mine is going to tell me that I have to have HACCP in order to do business with him ... we are too small to get into that.”
What are the Benefits? The biggest benefit of implementing a HACCP program is food safety. We, as bakers, have an obligation to produce safe foods. Food safety is not an option, it is a requirement to keep customers happy and maintain and improve market share. Major supermarkets, distributors and food service companies are committed to delivering safe, quality food products to their consumers. In order to meet those standards, they require bakeries to supply low risk food products to maintain and improve their high food safety standards.
Herewith are just some of the other benefits bakeries will enjoy with a HACCP program in place:
Fewer customer complaints: By providing hazard free products to our customers, we will have fewer complaints. For instance, if we are a wholesaler servicing a reputable retailer, we don’t want to hear that foreign materials were found in our bun and bread products. This creates problems for us, the buyers, and the consumer who probably initiated the complaint. We know from research, that if a customer had a bad experience, he/she will not only avoid the retail store but also tell at least another eight to ten people about the bad experience.
Maintain market position and improve market share: If our customers are unhappy, they will search for new suppliers who have food safety under control. Would you not do the same? As we lose our customer base, we loose market share and with it our integrity, good name and reputation that can be whipped-out with only one unfortunate event. With a food safety program in place, we can now approach new markets and assure buyers and customers that our bakery products are, indeed safe.
Reduce liability: Food safety issues usually leads to the involvement of the health authorities and, in serious cases, lead to costly law suites. A well-documented food safety program is proof that the manufacturer has food safety under control. Although, the product may have left the plant in good condition, much can happen before it is actually consumed by the customer. Now, the onus is on us to proof that food safety programs work. Aside from the legal problems, the negative publicity hat goes with such instances can lead to loss in market share.
Increase in efficiency and waste control: A well-run food safety program also leads to increased efficiency, reduce re-runs, and reduce product waste. For example, a documented equipment maintenance program could identify portion control problems. Not only do we need to make sure that the product has the weight shown on the packaging, but we also need to ensure that products are not overweight which would lead to higher food cost.
What Are Prerequisite Programs? GMPs are basically the same as HACCP prerequisites. An effective prerequisite program will actually decrease the number of critical control points during the hazard analysis of the process. The implementation of the HACCP prerequisites is one of the most important steps to improve quality in food processing.
The prerequisites include good manufacturing practices as follows: Premises, transportation and storage, equipment, personnel, sanitation and pest control, health and safety recalls. Let us look at a few examples of what each of these categories entail. You will soon recognize that you already have fulfilled many of the requirements. The only difference being that you must document the things you do. If you do not document you GMPs you will never pass an audit. There is no need to get discouraged at this point, because documentation can be kept very simple and still be effective.
Premises: Proper premises require that your building set-up is cleanable, keep out pests and that traffic patterns in the plant prevent cross contamination, between raw materials and finished products. The building and the construction must be suitable for the manufacture of bakery products. The outside property must be free of debris, good road and parking lot condition and it must be properly drained. You must have proper sanitary conditions such as hands free washing stations, washrooms and employee change and washrooms separate from the production area. Water quality must be evaluated on a regular basis and they must be documented.
Transportation and storage: This involves the receiving and storage of packaging materials, food chemicals, non-food chemicals, ingredients, and finished products. You must inspect incoming and outgoing trucks to ensure that they are suitable for the transportation of bakery products. All temperatures in your freezers and coolers must be controlled to keep food safe and you must apply FIFO principles: First in—First out. Your procedure must also include a product returns policy and rework of products in the plant. Such procedures will reduce wastage, customer complaints and make you more efficient.
Equipment: The equipment design and installation must prevent contamination and it should easily be cleanable. There should be a documented preventative maintenance program. Such a program will also ensure that production lines do not break down when they are needed most. Such a breakdown and production delays would result in product damage and an increased labour cost. Equipment must be calibrated in regular intervals. How else would you know that the thermometers on ovens, coolers, and freezers are accurate? They are only accurate if they are calibrated.
Personnel: Personnel training is crucial to the success of any bakery. If we don’t train people, then we do not communicate of what is expected. Without expectation, we cannot expect performance! Technical training must include sanitation principles and some understanding of food microbiology. It must include HACCP principles, personal hygiene, and communicable disease training. Training must be documented and management must ensure that the training material is understood. Training is one of the most important components of a HACCP prerequisite program.
Sanitation and pest control: In the baking business, we spend a lot of time cleaning, but very few bakeries actually document this activity. A sanitation program must be well documented and, as in all GMP programs, it must show who is responsible for the program. There must be master sanitation schedules and an approved chemical list.
A good pest control program can usually be handled by a pest control company. The manual must contain objectives and responsibilities, maps, schedules and chemical information. All exterior bait stations must be locked and numbered. In addition, records should show historic trends for specific locations in the plant.
Health and safety recalls: We all want to avoid recalls, but if we ever should have one, traceability is the key. It requires that our products be coded, that we keep production and shipping records. The recall program needs to be part of our overall crisis response plan.
A recall plan must be tested twice per year. You must be able to trace product and you must be able to withdraw the product from all retail shelves and food service account within a few hours.
All GMPs discussed, must have written procedures and standards and you must show documented evidence that your staff has been trained.
The HACCP Program Now that we have discussed the GMPs or HACCP prerequisites, let us move on to the actual HACCP program.
It takes about twelve months to implement a HACCP prerequisite program and about three months for a HACCP program. Therefore, only 20% of the work deals with the actual HACCP plan, but much will depend on the complexity of the processes involved. HACCP consists of seven principles:
1. Conduct a hazard analysis 2. Determine the critical control points 3. Establish preventive measures with critical limits 4. Establish monitoring procedures for the critical control points 5. Establish corrective actions when monitoring shows that critical limits have not been met 6. Establish verification procedures 7. Establish record keeping and documentation procedures
One of the most important steps is management commitment—without commitment, implementation will not work. Management must believe that HACCP will be beneficial for their business and provide staff support. If the program fails, it is due to the lack of management commitment not the fault of the QA, the staff or consultant.
Here are a few basic steps for the HACCP prerequisites that may work for you:
You have three choices to implement this program: You can get a consultant to do almost all of the work, get someone to coach you through the process or do it all by yourself. A consultant can facilitate the program for you, write the manuals, conduct training, and help with the implementation of the program.
You could also consider a coaching program where a consultant coaches you through the process. This way you can do most of the program yourself and reduce consulting costs. If you do get a consultant get someone who has worked with bakeries before. It always helps if you obtain the services of people who understand your business.
If you have the time, you can implement this program yourself, however, I do suggest that members of your HACCP team attend a few training seminars—an option that could be useful regardless of what method of implementation you decide to chose.
Generic models are useful if used as a guide. They cannot be copied and used as is in your plant. Because you have been in business for a long time, you already have a system in place. So why would you want to re-invent the wheel? It is much easier to analyse what you have in place and fill in the gaps. However, it would be very useful to get an audit or gap analysis that will pinpoint the things that are missing in your plant. This would be money well spent.
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Case In Point
A bakery supplier of one of the largest retail chain stores in the United States and Canada requested an audit to be conducted by an independent auditing firm. Management had no objection to this audit but did not know what was actually expected from them. To the disappointment of management, they failed the audit. According to the plant manager: “Most of the time I had no idea what this auditor was taking about…”
Management did not take immediate corrective action but decided about 28 days before the next audit to hire a consultant to implement a HACCP prerequisite program. They had no idea what they were getting into, but management was committed and highly motivated.
The consultant explained to management that due to the time constraints there was no guarantee that the plant would pass an audit — one cannot build a history of documentation in 28 days. Nevertheless, the consultant decided to take on the case and lead the team through the process. The HACCP team was selected and divided into work groups. Each work group was responsible for a segment.
The consultant would prepare a draft copy and have the team members go through each segment and make corrections. Once corrected, staff was trained and the GMP modules were implemented. The audit that followed was successful. The plant passed with 90% and the bakery was able to keep the retail chain store as a customer.
This scenario is not recommended. If you do intend to implement a GMP and HACCP program, plan and take at least 12 months — not 28 days — unless you enjoy putting your staff through punishment. This case illustrates that with a highly motivated and committed management team anything can be accomplished.
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