A HACCP plan for bakeries outlines important strategies for food safety.

HACCP Plan for Bakeries

What is a HACCP Plan for Bakeries?

An HACCP plan for bakeries is an output document of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Study. It specifies the strategies to be followed to assure control of physical, chemical and biological hazards based on the seven principles of HACCP when manufacturing baked goods.

The following elements are suggested:

  1. A trained HACCP team
  2. Product description
  3. Intended use
  4. Process flow diagrams
  5. Hazard analysis chart (HACCP Principle 1)
  6. Critical Control Points (CCP) identification (HACCP Principle 2)
  7. HACCP Control Chart (HACCP Principles 3-7)

Implementation

The HACCP Plan for Bakeries is specific to a product (e.g., pan bread, rolls, buns) and the process involved in its manufacturing, such as the production line or sanitation. It focuses on the food safety hazards that the established prerequisite hygiene programs and/or good manufacturing practices can not manage or prevent. Implementation utilize the following steps listed below.

Get a step-by-step guide for creating a HACCP plan in our technical paper! Download here.

1. Example of a HACCP team

Name Department Roles
Tom Jones Quality Manager HACCP Team Leader
Charles Lopez Production Manager Continuous Improvement Leader
John Lee Maintenance Manager Equipment Calibration and Servicing
Jazmine Crawford Technical Consultant Advising and consulting

2. Product description

Product description contains information regarding the formulation, composition, and processing technologies applied for manufacturing bakery products:

  • Formulation (e.g., allergenic ingredients, plant and/or animal origin of raw materials)
  • Compositional elements that affect microbial growth (e.g., Aw, pH, preservatives, acidity, nutrition labeling and allergens declaring)
  • Technologies applied in product manufacturing (e.g., baking, freezing, fermentation, pasteurization, ambient, sterile, vacuum or modified atmosphere packaging)

3. Intended use

Intended use covers the target groups who will buy, prepare, and/or consume the products. Different consumer groups may have varying susceptibilities to significant hazards (e.g., infants, children, hospital patients, immunocompromised individuals, allergic population).

4. Process Flow Diagrams (PFD)

Use the following to create a process flow diagram to show an overview of the entire process:

  • Details of all ingredients or inputs to processing steps (e.g., details for macros, minors, and micros)
  • All process activities/steps
  • Packaging material specifications
  • Processing, handling, and holding conditions/parameters (e.g., temperature, time, pressure, agitation speed, heat flux, humidity, air flow, pH, product moisture level, TTA, volumetric/mass flow, viscosity, percentage of additives)
  • Transfers within and between production areas (i.e., product flow patterns)
  • Issues or concerns regarding hygienic design of equipment

A simple process flow diagram for a bread baking plant could be:

  1. Scaling
  2. Mixing
  3. Bulk fermentation
  4. Make-up
  5. Proofing
  6. Baking
  7. Cooling
  8. Packaging
  9. Metal detection
  10. Stacking
  11. Storage
  12. Shipping

5. Hazard analysis chart (HACCP Principle 1)

In order to make the HACCP study simpler and practical, HACCP teams need to identify the relevant or potential hazards (i.e., screen significant from non significant hazards). It is then necessary to consider the likelihood of occurrence of the hazard in the specific bakery being studied, and the severity of the potential adverse effect in case a given hazard occurs in any stage of the supply chain, or the food safety risk.1

The hazard analysis chart collected by the HACCP team are significant for food safety and the HACCP plan.

Raw Material / Process Step Identified Hazard Source or cause of the hazard Risk Assessment Is this a significant hazard?(Yes / No) Justification Hazard is controlled through Justification of control measures
Likelihood Severity Prerequisite programs Process steps
Physical
Biological
Chemical

A significant hazard is both likely to occur (i.e., how frequent it occurs/has occurred during a time frame) and have the potential to cause harm to the consumer.

Criteria and guidance, based on sound science and experience, must be established for deciding the equivalency of a given significant hazard in terms of the numerical value obtained. This is essential for defining which hazard is significant and must be addressed in the HACCP Plan, or it is being controlled effectively by Prerequisite Programs and GMPs and should be left out (i.e., the hazard is not significant and should not be included in the HACCP Plan).

6. CCPs identification (HACCP Principle 2)

CCPs need to be identified to prevent, eliminate or reduce hazards. Here’s an example of a worksheet for CCP identification of significant hazards:

Raw Material / Process Step Significant hazard Control measures Question* CCP

(Yes / No)

 Justification

* Questions from the CCP decision tree:

Question: Is the step specifically designed to eliminate or reduce the likely occurrence of a hazard to an acceptable level?

7. HACCP Control Chart (HACCP Principles 3-7)

A HACCP control chart can be constructed as follows:

CCP Significant Hazard Control measure Critical Limits Target Value / Operating Limit Monitoring Corrective Actions Verification Record keeping
Activity (what) Procedure (how) Frequency (when) Responsibility (who)

Sanitation

References

  1. Wallace, C.A., Sperber, W.H., and Mortimore, S.E. “Developing a HACCP plan.” Food Safety for the 21st Century, Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011, pp. 185–215.
  2. Mortimore, S.E., and Wallace, C.A. “Appendix B: Acronyms and Glossary.” HACCP: A Food Industry Briefing, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2015, pp. 153–157.