HACCP requirements

The safety of food stuffs is a worldwide concern. Not just for the protection of consumer health, but also the continues effect food safety has on international trade. Effective management systems for food safety must result in save and sound food stuffs. Many countries require an HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) approach in their legislation for food processing companies.

In 1996 a group of Certification Bodies in the Netherlands developed a standard for food safety management, 'The Requirements for a HACCP based Food Safety System'.

The first version of this standard was published on 15 May 1996 by the National Board of Experts HACCP, a group of experts on Food Safety representing all parties in the (Dutch) food chain. Currently more than 1900 certificates are issued by the associated Certification Bodies.

Summarising the major strong aspects of 'The Requirements for a HACCP based Food Safety System':

  • continuous participation of all parties concerned in food safety in the maintenance of the certification scheme, including governmental agencies responsible for food safety;
  • pragmatic elaboration of the HACCP principles and steps stipulated in the Alinorm of the Codex Alimentarius in detailed requirements suitable to small as well as large sized food business organisations;
  • mature and high levelled set of requirements of a certification scheme;
  • practical experience with this system since 1996 and a vast number of certificates issued internationally;
  • application of this scheme by a growing number of major, reputable and internationally oriented certification bodies, under the accreditation of a world wide recognised accreditation body (the Dutch Accreditation Council RvA).

The National Board of Experts HACCP published the 4rd version of the 'Requirements' in April of 2007. The fourth version contains all relevant elements of the ISO 22000 standard that is being developed by the ISO-organisation. SCV as well as the National Board of Experts HACCP were actively involved in the ISO 22000 committee working on this standard.