What Is a Critical Control Point (CCP)? A Guide for Food Producers

Imagine you are in-charge of food safety risks within a production facility. You recently found out that multiple cases of salmonella stem back to raw chicken distributed from your warehouse. This one outbreak caused customers to get sick, sunk your reputation and led to lost contracts overnight.

How could you have prevented this ? If your business implemented critical control points (CCPs) like temperature monitoring, you could catch the refrigerator malfunction that led to the chicken contamination. But what exactly are CCPs? And how can your food business implement them properly? Here’s everything you need to know. 

What Is a Critical Control Point?

A critical control point (CCP) is a key component in food production prevents, eliminates or reduces food safety hazards. This process requires monitoring to control biological, chemical and physical hazards that pose a threat to consumer health and brand reputation. 

Identifying CCPs helps manufacturers target food safety risks and establish targeted interventions. Common examples of CCPs include checking temperature levels during cooking, monitoring storage conditions and implementing sanitation protocols. 

These preventive measures reduce the risk of potential hazards and promote a culture of continued improvement and food processing safety. It also helps protect the company and customers by maintaining the highest food safety standards. 

Benefits of Identifying Critical Control Points 

Identifying CCPs offers a variety of strategic advantages for food manufacturers seeking to maintain a high product quality and keep consumers safe from hazardous foods. These benefits include: 

• Reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses: Risk assessments help identify and address hazards at every stage of the food production process, reducing exposure to foodborne pathogens.
• Less risk of recalls, lawsuits or reputation damage: With better food handling measures in place, your business will face fewer problems related to food safety issues.
• Strengthening consumer confidence: Taking measures to ensure safety results in customer loyalty and a positive reputation.
• A culture of continuous improvement: CCPs encourage businesses to continually refine their processes, fostering employees to prioritize innovation and continued process optimization. 
• Compliance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations: Your business will have a much easier time complying with FDA regulations if you create a standard food safety management system. This includes using well-thought-out standard operating procedures and record-keeping processes to help reduce significant hazards related to food preparation.

Examples of CCPs for Food Safety

Effective CCP implementation applies to the entire food production lifecycle. Everything from managing temperatures to storage and hygiene protocols help prevent contamination. Common examples of CCPs include:

• Food purchasing: Source your raw materials from reputable food industry suppliers. Also, check that they meet certification criteria, which will help drastically reduce the risk of hazards in the supply chain.
• Product delivery: Once you receive goods, another core CCP involves thorough packaging and temperature log inspections to affirm that all items abide by set safety protocols.
• Effective food product storage: Storing all items under controlled and monitored facilities prevents microbial growth and cross-contamination. 
• Proper food production: Meeting proper cooking and cooling times and sanitizing equipment between tasks reduce the spread of pathogens. 
• Safe food displays: Food display and serving stations should be frequently reviewed to ensure hot or cold foods are kept at safe temperature ranges. 
• Production equipment and environment cleanliness: Frequently cleaning your cooking water, manufacturing equipment and facilities keeps surfaces free from harmful bacteria and allergens. 
• Proper and frequent staff training: Staff education hygiene protocols, storage requirements and temperature standards, to name a few, reinforces proper food handling techniques at every step of your processes, limiting risk and meeting public health laws.

7 Steps of the HACCP Program

The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system is a detailed, science-based framework crafted to identify, evaluate and control food safety hazards throughout every stage of food production. The steps and principles of HACCP include:

1. HACCP begins with identifying and assessing hazards and their level of severity and likelihood. 
2. Identify CCPs for each specific step in which interventions can effectively prevent or mitigate hazards to maintain safety. 
3. For each CCP, create critical limits like temperature and pH thresholds to establish consistent standards. 
4. Establish monitoring procedures to strategically and systematically monitor adherence to these limits. 
5. The subsequent step involves creating detailed corrective actions that give specifics on how to respond whenever a deviation occurs. 
6. Next, set up verification procedures to confirm that the hazard analysis and critical control points are functioning as planned.
7. Creating detailed documentation keeps a clear record of every step, holding your HACCP team accountable while promoting a culture of transparency.

Following all seven steps of the HACCP plan keeps consumers safe while encouraging continuous improvement in regard to food safety.

What Establishing CCPs Looks Like

Suppose a poultry producer, such as Tyson Foods, is seeking ways to ensure the safety of its food service products throughout the production lifecycle. The initial step is performing a hazard analysis to identify risks such as Salmonella contamination or improper storage containers temperatures. This assessment will dictate the various CCPs the company needs for all necessary workflows. 

For example, critical CCPs in this instance would include:

• Inspecting inbound raw chicken to make sure the supplier’s handling practices and temperature controls are effectively documented and accurate.
• Throughout the chilling and storage phase, temperature limits are established to prevent growth of bacteria. 
• On the production line, thorough cooking is an integral CCP. Pathogens are destroyed by requiring internal temperatures to reach and stay at a specific threshold (for example, at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit). Quality assurance teams frequently monitor these CCPs, using calibrated thermometers and automated systems to ensure accuracy. If temperatures are higher or lower than the set limit, immediate corrective actions such as extending cooking time or throwing out the affected batch are taken.

The organization can effectively safeguard its finished product to maintain both quality control and consumer confidence by implementing and abiding by these strict protocols.

How to Use a CMMS to Help Manage CCPs

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) like Coast can be instrumental in managing CCPs by organizing, verifying, scheduling and tracking necessary tasks. Key benefits include: 

• Equipment maintenance and inspection scheduling: Automate routine inspections and preventive maintenance tasks to make sure CCPs are never skipped and that equipment stays compliant with food safety regulations.
• Real-time equipment monitoring: Track temperature gauges, pressure levels and other key indicators, and get notifications immediately when issues arise. 
• Advanced analytics: Coast’s centralized maintenance dashboard collects real-time data to help decision-makers in refining their food safety processes. 
• Simplified documentation within an intuitive platform: CCPs require thorough documentation to be implemented effectively. With Coast, any team member can access procedural documents from the field via their phone or tablet when performing inspections, repairs or corrective actions. 

Don’t wait to refine your CCP processes with a simplified maintenance software platform. Book a demo with Coast today!