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HACCP, VACCP and TACCP

What do HACCP, VACCP and TACCP mean?

They are acronyms used in food safety.

HACCP has been around for decades, VACCP and TACCP were introduced in the 2010s.

VACCP and TACCP are no longer used by most food safety experts, and have been superseded by ‘food fraud programs’ and ‘food defense plans’.

 

What does HACCP stand for?

  • HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)  Pronounced ‘hassup’.  HACCP = keeping food safe from accidental and natural risks to food safety.

What does VACCP stand for?

  • VACCP (Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘vassup’.  VACCP = prevention of food fraud.  Has been superseded by ‘food fraud prevention’.

What does TACCP stand for?

  • TACCP (Threat Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘tassup’.  TACCP = prevention of malicious threats to food, such as sabotage, extortion or terrorism, sometimes called Intentional Adulteration within the US Food Safety Modernization Act.  Has been superseded by ‘food defense’.

What is HACCP?

  • HACCP is a set of principles designed to control and prevent food safety risks during food production.
  • HACCP is not enforced or regulated by any single organization.
  • The ideas of HACCP form the basis of every food safety management system standard that is in use today, including GFSI food safety standards.
  • The principles of HACCP are codified (written down) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in a set of documents called the Codex Alimentarius , a latin phrase which translates to “Book of Food”.
  • FAO’s General Principles of Food Hygiene CXC 1-1969 contains the HACCP principles (sometimes called HACCP Codex).  Download the 2020 revision of the HACCP Code here: http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/codex-texts/codes-of-practice/ (click the green check/tick mark on the right side of the page to download).

What is VACCP and TACCP?

  • VACCP and TACCP are terms that emerged during the 2010s as standards agencies, government regulators and industry groups started considering methods to prevent food fraud and malicious tampering.
  • VACCP is for food fraud.
  • TACCP is for food defense.
  • The acronyms VACCP and TACCP are designed to leverage the food industry’s familiarity with HACCP.  But they are unhelpful terms.  The controls in food fraud and food defense plans are nothing like the ‘critical control points’ in a HACCP plan.  The control points in a HACCP plan are operational steps in a food manufacturing process over which the food manufacturer has direct control.  Food fraud and food defense controls are different and they do not work the same way as ‘critical control points’ in HACCP.
  • The terms VACCP and TACCP are falling out of favor within the food safety industry.  They are not referenced specifically within any of the GFSI food safety standards, nor within the USA’s FSMA.

 

What to say instead of VACCP and TACCP?

  • Instead of ‘”VACCP” it is better to say food fraud prevention program.
  • Instead of “TACCP” it is better to say food defense plan.

Learn more

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