Hi All. I need some help please. I have just been dropped with doing a HACCP for the storage of organic foodstuffs. Does anyone have a copy of a HACCP that I could look at for guidance? Many thanks Andy

Not sure yet. Andy

HACCP is all about food safety, I can't see how from a HACCP point of view organic food is any different to non-organic food. If there is already a HACCP in place for food storage then in my view that should suffice.

Hi I am an Environmental health officer and in answer to above 1. organic food should in no way be any different from non organic food. 2. A HACCP is just like a risk assessment, identfy hazards, controls in place and additional controls. Phillip above has directed you to the safer food better business pack and this is the best option. Also I could help you further if you give me some more info on the type of food you are storing and in what type of environment. Also is the food packaged or going on to further production?

The organic food may well be different from other foods depending on whether the food about which you have been asked to produce a HACCP plan about is intended to be treated in some way either by the food business or the consumer before it is consumed either as an ingredient or a whole food. The approach to the HACCP plan therefore depends on the nature of the food,the environment from which it originates and any treatments to which it (or its environment) has been subjected. If it originates from the soil and it is not to be subsequently heat treated or cooked then a number of hazards will have to be considered. This will detemine the complexity of the HACCP plan and depending on these factors the adoption of the Safer Food Better Business model may be adequate or entirely inadequate. I suggest you discuss this with your local council who act as the food authority in your area for food safety.

I think I have it sorted. The info I got from the account manager was that we would have to "jump through hoops" to get approval from the Organic Food Federation for the storage and distribution of the product. All we will be doing is receiving pallets in, storing them and shipping them out again. Its a shelf ready product for the consumer. Thanks for the replies. Have a good weekend all. Andy

It is unfortunate that a paragraph not penned by me was inserted into my quote. At the time I wrote the quote there were only three known facts:-1) The food stuff is organic 2) It was to be stored 3) A HACCP plan was to be produced, the inference being that a pre-existing HACCP plan was not in place. On this basis I made my suggestions and because of the missing information my comments were based on HACCP theory. A comment is made that any good safety management system would be suffice.This is such a generalisation it is bound to be true.What is also true is that the complexity of the HACCP planning will depend on the nature of the food/foods involved and the processes to which it is to be subjected. For example using Safer Food Better Business as a model may well be a good system for a small cafe which serves sandwiches but may not be adequate for a sandwich manufacturer. However since the nature of the food has been clarified it can now be seen that the neccessary controls will be straightforward and may largely be covered by pre-requisites programmes. If, for example ,had this enquiry been about the storage of large quantity of unwrapped food ingredient for use in a ready to eat salad would the pre-delivery origins of the food and how it has been treated during growth be relevant?