HACCP - Prevention and Control

It has been estimated that roughly 25% of the world’s food crops are affected by mycotoxin contamination annually. In a situation like this it is perhaps not surprising that mycotoxins are an area of both growing concern and active research. Much research is centred around surveillance, occurrence and the development of new analytical methods, but equally important effort is being applied to the problems of prevention of mycotoxin formation.

This section focuses on the prevention of mycotoxins, with particular attention to the use of the the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) system as a tool of prevention. The HACCP system itself, although well established in food processing and manufacture worldwide, is not at present widely utilised in primary food production or the "early" life of food commodities such as during initial storage. However, there are some very sound and compelling reasons for adopting this type of holistic approach to the food supply, and these arguments will be discussed in later articles, together with some of the accompanying problems that exist.

Our discussions will begin with an overview of the HACCP system, both in terms of conventional food manufacture and mycotoxins themselves. We will look at the pre-requisites required to develop an effective HACCP system, and then outline the process itself, based on the seven established "Principles". Our attention will then turn to the application of HACCP to mycotoxin contamination at all stages in the commodity supply chain, with discussions on both the pre- and post-harvest situations. These discussions are supplemented with examples of successful schemes that have utilised a HACCP approach for a number of different crop and food types.

In addition to the supply of this information we will be running an interactive training course on the development of a HACCP scheme for mycotoxin control in a chosen system. The course will give interested parties the opportunity to consider some of the decisions and problems associated with developing such a scheme at all stages in the commodity supply train.