Health and Community 10: HACCP and Hurdle Technology in Food Production

HACCP and Hurdle Technology

• HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) and hurdle technology are crucial processes for controlling microbes in food, ensuring food safety for consumption and sale worldwide.
• These concepts relate to microbiology in food, epidemiology in outbreaks, and the use of antimicrobials for treating infections.

NASA's Food Safety Challenges

• NASA faces challenges in feeding astronauts during long space missions due to physical and biological contaminants in food.
• Dehydrated food is lightweight and aims to control microbes by removing water content.
• Physical contaminants like crumbs pose risks to equipment, making food selection critical for mission success.

Evolution of Food Monitoring Processes

• In the 1960s and 1970s, guaranteeing contaminant-free food was difficult due to limited food monitoring processes.
• Inspections were primarily of final products, lacking rigorous controls along the food processing chain.
• NASA developed the concept of "modes of failure" to identify potential hazards in food production.
• This involved understanding the manufacturing process and pinpointing critical points where issues could arise.

Societal Shift Towards Food Safety

• Concurrent with NASA's efforts, public awareness of food quality increased, driven by incidents like glass found in baby cereal.
• Consumer movements pushed for comprehensive safety plans in the trade and agricultural industries.
• The focus shifted from failure modes to identifying critical control points for all foods.
• This involved determining hazards in food production and establishing control points as logical steps.

HACCP Development and Principles

• HACCP originated in the 1960s with NASA and spread globally, adopted by the WHO as a framework for improving food safety and quality.
• It became a legal requirement in EU law.
• In the US, a major E. coli outbreak led to HACCP being enshrined in law to prevent future incidents.
• HACCP represents a proactive and preventative farm-to-table approach, adopted globally across various industries, including pharmaceuticals.

Seven Principles of HACCP

1. Hazard Analysis:
   • Identify potential hazards: chemical, physical, and biological.
2. Critical Control Points (CCPs):
   • Determine points that must be controlled to ensure food safety.
3. Critical Limits:
   • Establish acceptable ranges for control measures (e.g., temperature).
4. Monitoring:
   • Measure control points to ensure compliance.
5. Corrective Action:
   • Implement actions when monitoring indicates a deviation from critical limits.
6. Verification:
   • Verify the effectiveness of the HACCP system and equipment calibration.
7. Record Keeping:
   • Maintain records of all steps and critical control points to trace product history and identify issues.

WHO Flowchart for Critical Control Points

• The WHO flowchart helps determine critical control points by assessing control measures and their impact on hazard reduction.
• Control measures are assessed to see if they eliminate or reduce hazards.
• Refrigeration is an example of a control measure designed to control and prevent bacterial load from increasing to unsafe levels.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Food Preservation Methods

• Intrinsic: existing in the food itself (water activity, pH, antimicrobials).
• Extrinsic: external factors (heat treatment, cooling, packaging).
• Combining multiple preservation methods, rather than relying on a single intervention, is a key strategy in food preservation.
• This helps maintain the naturalness and quality of the food while effectively controlling microbial growth.

Hurdle Technology Example: Jam Making

• Making strawberry jam exemplifies hurdle technology.
• Strawberries have a high initial microbial population that needs to be controlled.
• Hurdle 1: Heat treatment to kill initial bacteria.
• Addition of citric acid enhances acidity.
• Hurdle 2: Adding sugar lowers water activity, limiting bacterial growth.
• Hurdle 3: Sealing hot jam in a jar creates a low-oxygen environment.
• Multiple hurdles combine to make a safe, desirable product.

Home Preservation Technologies

• Heating
• Water activity control
• Altering acidity or redox potential
• Adding preservatives
• Competitive microorganisms
• Food processing (Maillard reaction)

Maillard Reaction

• The Maillard reaction, or non-enzymatic browning of food, involves reactions between sugars and amino acids at high temperatures.
• It reduces sugar and water bioavailability to microbes.
• The reaction produces phenolic compounds that contribute to the taste of the food.
• $Sugars + Amino Acids \xrightarrow{High Temperature} Glycosylamine + H_2O$
• $Glycosylamine \xrightarrow{Heat} Ketosamines$
• $Ketosamines \xrightarrow{Reactions} Various Products (Phenolic Compounds)$

New world Technologies

• Microwave heating
• Irradiation
• High pressure environments
• Ozonation
• Ohmic heating
• Modified atmosphere packaging
• Natural products (bacteriocins, enzymes, natural oils).

Case Study: Shire Foods

• Shire Foods, a pie-making company, needs to rapidly freeze partially cooked pies to meet critical control point thresholds.
• Pies must go from cooking levels of hot to frozen within forty minutes for it to meet a critical control point threshold.
• Testing internal pie temperature is destructive.
• Infrared temperature sensors were evaluated as a non-destructive method to estimate internal temperature based on surface temperature.
• Spiral blast chillers were used to freeze the pies rapidly.
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Alternative High-Tech Solutions

• Microwave radiometry systems, like those from Celsius Instruments in Glasgow, offer accurate temperature tracking through packaging.
• These systems measure thermal radiation from the food product.
• Cost remains a barrier to widespread implementation.

Impact of HACCP

• HACCP has greatly reduced foodborne outbreaks globally.
• For example, Salmonella contamination in poultry in the US decreased by 56% after HACCP introduction, preventing approximately 200,000 annual cases.

HACCP in Complex Environments: Kazakhstan Meat Production

• In Kazakhstan, HACCP was applied to meat pate production in an area with environmental contamination from nuclear testing.
• Raw material acceptance, blanching, cooking, cooling, packaging, and storage were identified as critical control points.
• Implementation of controls reduced heavy metals, pesticides, and radionucleotides in the final product.
• HACCP helps ensure food safety despite environmental contamination.

Limitations and Failures: Cantaloupe Outbreak

• A deadly Listeria monocytogenes outbreak in the US in 2011 was traced back to cantaloupe melons from a Colorado farm.
• The outbreak resulted in nearly 150 identified infected, many hospitalizations and deaths.
• The farm had purchased new washing machinery that was difficult to clean, leading to Listeria contamination. Insufficient cooling also contributed to the growth of Listeria.
• Failures in adhering to HACCP principles led to the outbreak, which was halted by identifying the source and recalling the produce.

Global Challenges in HACCP Implementation

• Variability in HACCP implementation due to different regulatory and legislative frameworks.
• High income countries have stricter regulation and enforcement than low income countries, which may lack infrastructure.
• Harmonizing HACCP on a global scale is necessary to promote safe global trade.
• Balance cost and infrastructure in developing nations to ensure compliance.

Strategies for Overcoming Challenges

• Low cost technologies (e.g., solar powered refrigeration).
• Education and hygiene practices.
• Simplification of the process and subsidizations for smaller businesses.

Future Threats and Considerations

• Climate change and rising temperatures may increase foodborne pathogen prevalence.
• Awareness of sustainability and ethical aspects of food systems is growing, including waste reduction, fair labor practices, and sustainable farming.
• Customer awareness and interest in ethical values and fair trade may drive changes in food production.
• Emerging technologies, like lab grown meat, need incorporation of quality and safety controls.
• Continuous adaptation is needed to guarantee food safety in evolving global supply chains.