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HACCP, VACCP and TACCP

  1. HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)  Pronounced ‘hassup’.  HACCP = keeping food safe from accidental and natural risks to food safety.
  2. VACCP (Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘vassup’.  VACCP = prevention of economically motivated food fraud.
  3. TACCP (Threat Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘tassup’.  TACCP = prevention of malicious threats to food, such as sabotage, extortion or terrorism.  This type of malicious threat is also referred to as Intentional Adulteration within the US Food Safety Modernization Act.  Outside of the US, TACCP is more often called ‘food defense’.

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).

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 acronymns VACCP and TACCP are designed to leverage the food industry’s familiarity with HACCP.  However, the critical control ‘points’ in a VACCP and TACCP plan 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.  The points are connected to processes over which the food manufacturer can exercise direct control.
  • For deliberate tampering (food fraud and food defense) the controls do not fit onto a linear set of processes, they do not fit the definition of ‘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.
  • Instead of ‘”VACCP” and “TACCP”, it is much better to say “Vulnerabilities to food fraud” or “threats of malicious tampering (=food defense)”.

More acronyms demystified here.

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Raw Material Specifications

Raw material specifications are an important defence against food fraud for all food businesses.  Whether you are a restaurant, a specialty grocer, delicatessen, central kitchen, hotel or manufacturer, you are susceptible to food fraud.  Robust specifications can help to protect your food business from inadvertently purchasing, using or serving fraudulent ingredients and raw materials.  They can also help to protect your business from the financial fall-out if things go wrong.

Fraudulent materials include:

Modern Dairy food-processing industry Worker On A Milk Factory

Specifications for raw materials and ingredients should contain the following information:

  1. Name of the material
  2. A description of the material, including biological, chemical and physical characteristics
  3. Composition of the material, including additives and processing aids
  4. Country of origin
  5. Method of production
  6. Packaging format/s or unit of measure
  7. Delivery method/s
  8. A description of the labelling, lot ID and coding for traceability
  9. Storage conditions and shelf life
  10. Preparation and/or handling before use
  11. Acceptance and rejection criteria
  12. Requirements for certificates of analysis for high risk materials or vulnerable materials
  13. Special requirements such as allergen information, organic status, GMO status, fair-trade and ethical sourcing policies
  14. Information about compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements, where relevant
  15. A requirement for suppliers to notify of any authenticity issues with the product
  16. A requirement for suppliers to notify of any changes to the product
  17. Formal agreement between the supplier and purchaser
  18. Document control features, such as author, date and page numbers.

Download our excellent template today

How to develop a raw material specification:

  • Create a template that suits the needs of your business.  A tabular format is easy to work with.  Include all of the sections above, even if you don’t think you will use them now, or if they are not relevant to some of your materials.  You can always leave them blank.
  • You should create a separate specification for every unique material, do not create category-level specifications.
  • Obtain product specifications from your suppliers and use them to add key criteria to your specifications.
  • Add any extra criteria that will help you to control the quality, safety and authenticity of your products.  It is useful to imagine that you are receiving the material at your door or loading dock; what would you like to know about the material before you accept it? For example: Is it at the correct temperature?  Is it properly labelled?  Is the packaging undamaged with no evidence of tampering?  Is the material free of undeclared allergens?  Does it have the fat content you expect?  Has it been aged (meat) for as long as you expect?  Is it free from salmonella?  Use these questions to check that you have included all important criteria in your specification.
  • Don’t forget to include requirements for suppliers to have a food safety certificate, licence, approval or registration, where relevant.
  • If you are purchasing materials under fixed supplier contracts (as would be the case for  food manufacturers), the draft specifications will need to be approved by your purchasing department and by the suppliers themselves before they can be formally issued and implemented.
  • Review each specification at least annually and update the issue/review date.

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