Re: HACCP

wytze (geno@zap.a2000.nl)
Tue, 09 Nov 1999 15:51:23 +0100

I would like to comment a little. HACCP was as far as I know an initiative
from the WHO which asked for a sharper hygiene control system throughout the
whole foodchain. Initially agriculture was left out but under pressure from
the foodindustry it now seems to be implemented in agriculture also. In itself
I do not oppose that because as a (very small) foodcompany I got confronted
with all kind of hygienerules but no demands on the first producers, so it
could have worked out that I was treating very dirty produced meat with the
greatest possible hygienice care. That does not make sense. However, I am not
convinced that the demands that come from HACCP are all really sensible.
I think it is of great importance to find out what exactly proper sanitation
is. HACCP seems to have a view on this which I do not necessarily share. I do
know that in practice HACCP has undermined a number of old, classical ways of
foodprocessing and also it has undermined the use of non-chemical cleaning
products. I have worked for a few years as a restaurantmanager. One could
argue that from the HACCP perspective my kitchen was a mess.
However, since the kitchen was mainly vegetarian, almost completely organic
and the warm and cold kitchen were sufficiently separated, not one person has
suffered food poisoning in that restaurant.
(The foodcontaminationguide for restaurants stated that 75% of foodpoisoning
comes from meat.)
I do not know how it works out for farms, but I can imagine that a lot of the
HACCP rules are exaggerated. They were at least for my restaurant.
wytze

Bluestem Associates wrote:

> On Tue, 9 Nov 1999 01:09:35 -0500 (EST), Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
>
> >Proper sanitation _is_ extremely important but I imagine that if these
> >regulations are enforced 90% of US small growers will go out of business.
>
> This stuff is important, indeed. Several people died in eastern Canada
> a few years back because they got Listeria from small-scale organic
> sauerkraut. I've inspected some small farms that are worse than
> anything I saw in Bolivia, as far as sanitation was concerned. To be
> told I was "just up-tight, man" certainly solidified my opinion that if
> they can't clean it up, such operations *should* be shut down.
>
> As it stands right now, the small operations that do a good job are at
> a something of a competitive disadvantage compared to the ones that are
> just winging it.
>
> >It seems obvious that "contamination by toxins, grease, insect parts"
> >should be included in procedures to ensure sanitation of product.
> >
> >I just love the way not a word was mentioned about pesticides; its almost
> >as if Dennis Avery had a hand in that special feature.
>
> The HACCP approach lends itself reasonably well to risk reduction in
> relation to all of the non-microbial contaminants and pollutants you
> mentioned above. Strictly speaking, however, HACCP focuses on microbial
> contamination. The good growers out there are already applying a
> modified HACCP approach to all sorts of risks, including pesticides.
>
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