GOVPH

Safety is a basic requirement of food quality. Food contamination and poisoning can occur at any stage from farm to fork. Rapid urbanization and globalization of food manufacturing and trade increase the likelihood of incidents involving contaminated and adulterated food. Hundreds of people in our local area fall ill every year and many suffer death as a result of consuming unsafe food.

In this regard, Food Safety has been one of the flagship programs of DOST CALABARZON. This program aims to provide technical assistance to the SMEs in the region. Realizing the expanse of this task, DOST strategized to augment its manpower by developing Food Safety Team (FST) from the different provinces of the region.

DOST CALABARZON have enhanced the capability of State Colleges and Universities and Local Government Units, as well as other government agencies, in terms of food safety system. The intensive training of the participants is designed to attract technical persons who can provide regular consultancy services to food industry including food manufacturers, food service units, and street food vendors. Technical consultancy includes the following: Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), and ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety Management System (FSMS).

Services Offered:

Seminar-Workshop on Basic Food Hygiene and GMP

• This seminar focuses on the standards set by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA). GMP regulations require that the processes by which products are made, as well as the final products, are safe.
• The following outlines the content of this seminar-workshop:

1. GMP Organization. The company should have an adequate number of personnel at all levels having knowledge, skill and capabilities relevant to their assigned functions, to be able to execute their duties.
   
   
2. Training of personnel. All employees who are directly involved in the manufacturing or preparation activities should be trained in the particular operations they perform in accordance to the principles of GMP.
   
   
3. Premises. GMP guidelines on the following will be discussed:
   
   
   1. Grounds
   2. Plant, buildings, structures
   3. Equipments
      
      
4. Sanitation and Hygiene. GMP guidelines on the following will be discussed:
   1. Personnel
   2. Education and training
   3. Supervision
   4. Sanitary facilities
   5. Maintenance and sanitation
      
      
5. Production and Process Controls. All operations in the receiving, inspecting, transporting, segregating, preparing, manufacturing, packaging, and storing of food should be conducted in accordance with adequate sanitation principles.
   
   
6. Quality Control. A quality control system should be established to ensure that products contain the correct materials of specified quality and quantity and are manufactured under proper conditions.
   
   
7. Documentation. All documents related to the manufacture and operations should ne prepared, reviewed, approved, and distributed according the written procedures.
   
   
8. Quality audits. A quality audit is consists of an examination and assessment of all or part of a quality system with the specific purpose of improving it.
   
   
9. Warehousing and distribution. Even in food storage and distribution, there should be appropriate procedures for sanitary handling.

Seminar-Workshop on HACCP

• This seminar focuses on the use of HACCP approach on controlling critical points in food handling to prevent food safety problems. It is a system for identifying specific hazards and preventive measures for their control.
• The following outlines the content of this seminar-workshop:

LESSON 1. GMP Review. The basic food safety principles and good manufacturing practices guidelines will be revisited prior discussion of the HACCP principles.

LESSON 2. Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs). The SSOP does not change the way sanitation is practiced in the plant; it simply documents what the personnel have been doing successfully for some time. In this lesson, the eight sanitary conditions will be discussed.

LESSON 3. Assemble a HACCP Team. Assembling a multidisciplinary team gives assurance that the appropriate product specific knowledge and expertise is available for the development of an effective HACCP plan.

LESSON 4. Describe product. A full description of the product should be drawn up including relevant safety information.

LESSON 5. Identify intended use. The intended use should be based on the expected uses of the product by the end user or consumer.

LESSON 6. Construct flow diagram. The flow diagram – which covers all the steps in the operation – should be constructed by the HACCP team.

LESSON 7. On-site confirmation of the flow diagram. The HACCP team should confirm the processing operation against the flow diagram and revise it where appropriate.

LESSON 8. List all potential hazards associated with each step, conduct a hazard analysis, and consider any measures to control identified hazards (Principle 1). The team should list all of the hazards that may be reasonably expected to occur. Then they should conduct a hazard analysis to identify which hazards are of such a nature that the elimination or reduction to acceptable levels is important of a safe food. After these, applicable control measures for each hazard must be considered.

LESSON 9. Determine CCP (Principle 2). There could be more than one CCP at which control is applied to address the same hazard. In this lesson, the use of decision tree and/or other approaches will be practiced.

LESSON 10. Establish critical limits for each CCP (Principle 3). Critical limits must be specified and validated if possible for each CCP.

LESSON 11. Establish a monitoring system for each CCP (Principle 4). The monitoring procedures must be able to detect loss of control at the CCP.

LESSON 12. Establish corrective actions (Principle 5). In this lesson, specific corrective actions must be developed for each CCP in the HACCP system in order to deal with deviations when they occur.

LESSON 13. Establish verification procedures (Principle 6). In this lesson, establish procedures for verification that can be used to determine if the HACCP system is working correctly.

LESSON 14. Establish documentation and record keeping (Principle 7). In this lesson, discussion will be on efficient and accurate record keeping which is essential to the application of a HACCP system.

Seminar-Workshop Towards Understanding ISO 22000:2005

• This seminar focuses on the international standard that specifies the requirements for a food safety management system which involves interactive communication, system management, prerequisite programs and HACCP principles.
• The following outlines the content of this seminar-workshop:

1. Introduction to ISO 22000:2205. Defining ISO 22000 and how was this developed. This will also explain what an institution needs to do to build a 22000 Food Safety Management System.
   
   
2. The Process Approach. For an organization to function effectively and efficiently, it has to identify and manage numerous linked activities. This part discusses the advantage of this approach over the linkage between the individual processes.
   
   
3. ISO 22000:2005 Technical Specification. Prior to establishing FSMS, an organization must first comply with several prerequisite programs.
   
   
4. Understanding ISO 22000:2005 Clauses. A detailed discussion on the mandatory requirements of FSMS.
   
   
5. Internal Audit. Discussion on the checklist of internal audit components and documents required to be able to comply with the different FSMS audit levels.

Consultancy and Assessment/Audit

FST CALABARZON provides assistance on GMP/HACCP/ISO 22000 documentation and assessment of the organization on their compliance with the standard.

Related Articles:
DOST CALABARZON Food Safety Project
Development of DOST Regional Offices Food Safety Teams (FST)