What is TACCP?
TACCP (Threat Assessment Critical Control Points) is a management process that aims to prevent intentional product contamination in the food industry. The process helps to proactively identify and manage control points in the supply chain that are susceptible to tampering.
You might be wondering, why would anyone contaminate food on purpose? Sadly, the reason TACCP exists is that occasionally it happens. These attempts are few and far between, but it’s still important that businesses handling any type of food do their due diligence with a threat assessment.
Is it common that food products are deliberately contaminated? No. But having a TACCP plan in place is part of the reason it’s uncommon. Follow the TACCP guidelines to ensure food safety
In your business.
Table of contents:
1. What threats should a TACCP plan address?
2. How can you implement a TACCP plan?
2.1. Create a plan
2.3. Perform evaluations
2.4. Analyze risks
2.6. Continuously improve processes
3. How can you use a digital solution for your TACCP plan?
What threats should a TACCP plan address?
There have been several cases of food or ingestible product tampering having disastrous consequences. One example is the Chicago Tylenol murders , when a total of eleven people died in 1982 after unsuspectingly ingesting potassium cyanide that they thought was a Tylenol capsule.
This event motivated manufacturers to put more thought into tamper-proof packaging designs. But package tampering is only one of many threats that can introduce harm to consumersOther food contamination threats include:
- Contamination with allergens such as peanuts.
- Contamination via needles or other physical impurities.
How can you implement a TACCP plan?
Companies can address food contamination risks by proactively addressing threats and knowing which part of the food supply chain poses the greatest risk. To make use of a TACCP checklist, companies must meet the following requirements:
1. Create a plan
Your plan should consist of a multidisciplinary team with members from recruitment, security, and management. You will need input from each of these sectors to create your TACCP plan.
2. Identify control points
Control points, or areas that pose particular threats to personnel, operations, or products, must be identified in yourfood supply chain.
3. Perform evaluations
Assessing your control points is necessary to identify risks. Then you can decide on precautionary measures to minimize those risks,
4. Analyze risks
Analyze risks and implement appropriate threat controls to continue monitoring checkpoints.
5. Create an action plan
Establish possible corrective actions at an early stage to avoid control breaches. This also includes regular employee training.
6. Continuously improve processes
Continue improving your TACCP plan by reviewing documentation and monitoring new threats. Preventive measures must be specifically defined and continuously monitored at regular intervals.
How can you use a digital solution for your TACCP plan?
Maintaining an effective TACCP system requires continuous documentation and monitoring so you can identify threats early. However, relying on paper records and manual documentation can be an obstacle to effectively implementing TACCP. Spending a lot of time manually recording data and reviewing paper documentation is counterproductive to building an effective food defense system.
Lumiform, the powerful app for audits, helps to quickly and efficiently implement a paperless and effective TACCP process in your company. The mobile solution enables you to immediately react to threats identified during the assessment. All completed TACCP reports are automatically stored online and you can share them immediately with the entire team.
Lumiform’s intuitive inspection software lets you:
:
- Generate real-time data on your internal processes, making it easier to measure quality and security
- Obtain an overview of everything that’s going on on-site
- Create reports automatically, saving you time spent on analysis
- Increase the efficiency of your internal processes through more efficient communication within the team, third parties, and management, as well as faster incident reporting
- Save time by analyzing all data more easily and identifying areas that need your attention more quickly
- Create custom inspections, using the flexible checklist builder
- Eliminate human error by providing employees a step-by-step way of filling out inspection templates, no training needed
