What is the difference between HACCP Validation and HACCP Verification? In this episode we tackle what seems to be one of the most confusing terminology in the food industry.

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Welcome

Welcome to Episode 26 of HACCP Mentor Review. This is a jam packed episode where we tackle what seems to be the most confusing terminology in the food industry along with cleaning equipment identification, who needs to be trained on a food production site and a very a nasty food poisoning outbreak. We also pay tribute to a very special organisation.

How to identify cleaning equipment

The best way to identify cleaning equipment is through a colour-coded system. This allows particular cleaning equipment to be used in a particular area. It helps to prevent any cross contamination if you have high risk and low risk or high care and low risk areas. Dedicated colour coded cleaning equipment is also great when you are trying to prevent any allergen cross contact during cleaning.

Who needs to be trained on our food production site?

The purpose of training is to ensure that all staff have the appropriate skill and knowledge to complete their food handling duties. The level of training required will depend on the Individual food handler duties and the level of food safety, quality and compliance risk the food handler poses to the business. As a minimum, all staff who are employed by the business and all contractors (including maintenance) should have induction training which includes good hygiene practices and food safety. This topic leads very well into this episodes action item.

Action of the Week

This episodes action to check that all contractors have been inducted in food safety. This means that people who do not work on your food production site have had some introductory training in food safety as it relates to your particular business. Contractors can include maintenance, cleaning, pest control and waste removal personnel.

Food Poisoning Outbreak

The food poisoning outbreak in the spotlight this episode comes from India where 23 children were killed after eating a free meal provided by a local school in the state of Bihar. The police investigation has reported detecting high levels of a chemical commonly found in pesticides, in the cooking oil.

Verification and Validation – What is the difference?

A recent comment on the HACCP Mentor website from Constantino asked what the difference is between HACCP verification and HACCP validation and calibration. In a nut shell, I find the easiest way to explain this is by the following:

Validation – is what we do, going to work. Is it going to achieve the outcome that we desire and require? An example of this would be, we say that we are going to cook a food to a particular temperature because we want to make sure that there is no harmful bacteria remain. To validate the temperature chosen, we could refer to legislation, scientific journals or other data that supports the cooking temperature we have selected will kill the harmful bacteria.

Verification is best defined as being the things we do to see if we are actually doing what we say we are going to do. So in the above example, with the temperature to kill the harmful bacteria, we would check or verify that the food was actually reaching that temperature. This would be done through testing the temperature of the food.

Now for calibration – we want to make sure that the equipment that we use in the verification process is reading and operating correctly. We would do this through the process of calibration. So again, for this example, the thermometer that we use to check the temperature would need to be regularly calibrated to make sure that we are always getting the most accurate result.

If I have managed to confuse you even more, try remember it like this:

Validation = science

Verification = checking