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This information can be used to develop food safety and quality programs that meet the requirements of modern Regulatory, Customer and Industry Standards:
When considering the development, documentation, and implementation of Chemical Control within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes:
The use of chemicals within any food business must include elements that not only promote food safety but which also promote the general safe use, handling, and storage of all cleaning, sanitation, pest control, maintenance, and other chemicals. This can generally be facilitated by ensuring documented procedures for chemical control are documented and available to everyone using chemicals.
Chemical usage procedures may include:
All pesticides, sanitizers, cleaners, polishes, lubricants, and other toxic and non-toxic chemicals used in the food business must be:
Food business chemicals must be approved for use in the food establishment. Some products, such as food-grade lubricants, may contain statements by the manufacturer as being approved for use within the food industry or a specific industry sector. Before use within a food business, a confirmation must be received that chemical products are approved for a specific use, and will not potentially contaminate foods. It is important to consider that chemicals such as restricted-use pesticides can only be used by a certified pest control operator. Regulatory approvals may also be required for the use of some chemicals within food businesses.
Chemicals used within food businesses must be properly stored and located with insecticides and rodenticides stored separately from cleaning compounds and other chemicals. All chemicals and pesticides must be stored separately from food, food contact surfaces, and single-use and single-service articles. In this context, the term separate does not include storage of toxic chemicals above food, food contact surfaces, single-use, and single-service articles.
The storage of chemicals must also meet local regulatory and environmental protection requirements.
Where necessary, adequate facilities for the storage and handling of food, ingredients, and non-food chemicals including cleaning chemicals, pest control chemicals, lubricants, and other maintenance chemicals must be provided.
Where appropriate, food storage and handling facilities should be designed and constructed to:
The type of facilities required will depend on the nature of the food items being stored and handled by a food business. Where necessary, segregated and secure storage facilities should be provided for cleaning chemicals, pest control chemicals, lubricants, and other maintenance chemicals. Storage facilities for ingredients, packaging, and other materials should also be appropriately secured and adequately ventilated.
Chemical dosing units are commonly fitted to ensure the appropriate dilution of the chemicals with water and other liquids where required. Where chemical dosing units are fitted, they must be regularly calibrated to ensure their accuracy. The calibration of chemical dosing units should be scheduled and documented, just as the calibration for items such as thermometers or scales. It is common for chemical suppliers to manage this function within food businesses, commonly through the use of titration methods to show that the outfeed from the dosing unit includes the chemical in the correct concentration. Outcomes of calibration activities should be recorded and reviewed on an ongoing basis to re-confirm the avoidance of product contamination.
Specific Chemical Training is a standard requirement for persons involved with the use of chemicals within food businesses. It is important that chemical training is tailored to the specific requirements of the chemicals being used, to ensure that foods do not become contaminated by such usage.
It is important that the application of chemical handling and usage training is completed before persons are left unsupervised to use chemicals within a food business. Competency against chemical handling and usage training requirements should also be verified before unsupervised interactions.
It is important to consider that specific chemical handling and usage training should be developed, scheduled, conducted, and recorded to display compliance for functional chemicals used as food additives or processing aids. The use of such chemicals should be well controlled; it is common for chemicals such as nitrites and sulfites to be stored in secure areas, and only accessible to authorized persons to ensure any accidental or intentional misuse is unlikely to occur.
There are many different types of Cleaning and Sanitation chemicals available for use within the food industry:
It is common for food businesses to develop, document, implement and maintain chemical inventory listings to track the usage and location of chemicals within a food business. This activity not only provides evidence of appropriate chemical usage but also assists in controlling the costs associated with purchasing chemicals for use. An added bonus is the ability to confirm chemicals received against the chemical inventory listing, to ensure the chemical has not changed from its original specification and active ingredients.
Chemical inventory listings commonly include the following details:
Detergents are used to remove dirt particles; they are not designed to kill microorganisms, although their pH levels can affect growth and status. Detergents are chemicals that usually have a surfactant quality, making the removal of dirt from surfaces easier. The most appropriate time to clean surfaces with detergents in solution or as recommended is immediately after use, removing food particles before they become hardened and more difficult to remove and facilitate micro-organism’s growth. The strength of a detergent regarding its cleaning power is reflected in its alkalinity content. It is important to recognize that the use of hot water as a component of cleaning and sanitizing routines where appropriate can dramatically improve the capability of the system to control microorganisms.
Sanitizers are generally not good at removing dirt but do kill microorganisms if used according to the conditions of use. The majority of food poisoning bacteria are killed if they are exposed to heat, chemical sanitizers, or a combination of both. Chlorine or Bleach is one of the most commonly used chemical sanitizers used in food industries today. Commercial bleach typically contains around 10% Chlorine, while the domestic variety is commonly around 4% Chlorine. High-risk areas to be sanitized should use a solution at a concentration of up to 100 parts per million of available chlorine. Other areas and applications may require a solution of around 50 parts per million.
The pH and hardness of the water being used must be determined. Should the water supply be from a municipal supply, the water company may adjust the hardness of the water through processing controls. If the water is from other sources, it may need to be tested periodically to ensure ongoing appropriate outcomes.
Chemical sanitizing generally requires greater controls than sanitizing with hot water or steam.
The following factors must be considered to obtain effective sanitation by chemical methods:
The factors that determine the performance of a particular detergent or sanitizer include:
When not using an automated chemical dosing system, chemical sanitizer instructions call for a given amount of chemical sanitizer per liter of water. This ratio of chemical sanitizer to water is important to ensure ongoing appropriate outcomes for the sanitation process.
If manual chemical sanitizer measuring and mixing methods are used, the processes involved must follow procedure and are verified on an ongoing basis.
Staff involved in applications where they are required to manually measure and mix chemicals must be trained and deemed competent in the required tasks.
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Development requirements in relation to their items.
Document: A document provides guidance and/or direction for performing work, making decisions, or rendering judgments that affect the safety or quality of the products or services that customers receive.
Documented policies, procedures, work instructions, and schedules form the basis of any food safety and quality management system. The following documentation formats may be considered to ensure ongoing compliance with specified requirements for Chemical Control:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Documentation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Chemical Control Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Chemical Control documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Implementation: Implementation is the application of documented food safety and quality system elements into the actual business operation.
The implementation of Chemical Control within any food business requires genuine commitment from senior management, staff, and visitors to ensure the nominated goals of implementation are achievable on an ongoing basis. It is a step that requires significant planning and consideration of general and specific food business circumstances to ensure the outcomes of Chemical Control do not negatively impact the safety and quality of the food items dispatched from the business.
Implementation of Chemical Control must include a clear definition of responsibilities and authorities for all levels of participation by senior management, staff, and visitors to the site.
When implementing Chemical Control within a food safety and quality system, you may wish to consider the following requirements before completion:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Implementation requirements in relation to their items.
Monitoring: Monitoring is the act of reviewing and confirming measurable parameters of a defined process or product status.
Monitoring requirements within food industry sectors are generally identified against limits of acceptability defined within HACCP plans, implementation procedures, and work instructions. Monitoring usually includes some element of record-keeping, which may be maintained manually or through digital systems. It is important to consider that advancements in technology have spawned many systems and processes which are self-monitored and or self-adjusted when variances are identified. Regardless of the system used; the goal of any monitoring activity is to provide sufficient evidence that any limit of acceptability has been met.
Traditional Chemical Control monitoring requirements include manual recording and the application of corrective actions when the results of monitoring are found to be outside acceptable limits. Corrective Actions should also generally be strongly linked to the monitoring process where applied to ensure full traceability of the applied actions.
Common monitoring activities and record formats may apply to Chemical Control:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Monitoring requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Chemical Control Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Chemical Control documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Corrective Action: Corrective action is mandatory action to be taken when a deviation to the Quality System occurs, particularly with a Critical Control Point.
Preventative Action: At any step in the process where a hazard has been identified, preventative action must be put into place to prevent re-occurrence.
Corrective Action and Preventative Action are implemented to ensure that any identified non-conformance issues are documented, investigated, and rectified within appropriate timeframes. Corrective action is any action applied to regain control over a product, process, policy, or procedure that has been identified as being non-conforming or outside nominated limits of acceptability. Preventative action is any action applied to prevent any identified non-conformance from reoccurring.
The outcomes of corrective and preventative actions should result in regained process control after effective application. Specified corrective actions are commonly linked to the HACCP Plans and the food business certification process.
Below are Corrective Action and Preventative Action examples which may be associated with Chemical Control related non-conformance issues:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Corrective Action requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Corrective Action and Preventative Action section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Verification: The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise establishing and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements.
Verification is the detailed review of all food safety and quality system elements to confirm that they are effectively developed, documented, implemented, monitored, and reviewed. All food safety and quality system elements, including documented policies, procedures, training, HACCP plans, and their operational applications must be verified on an ongoing scheduled basis. The verification process commonly includes a defined schedule for which verification activities are required, how often they are conducted, who is responsible, and detailed documented procedures for each nominated verification activity.
The general goal of an established verification process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate timeframe. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
The following examples of verification activities may apply to Chemical Control:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Verification requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Verification Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Validation: The process of gathering evidence to provide a scientific basis for the documented act of demonstrating that a procedure, process, and activity will consistently lead to the expected results. It often includes the qualification of systems and equipment.
Validation is the provision of evidence to support the limits of control or acceptability for food safety or quality parameters nominated within systemic elements. Limits of control or acceptability are commonly included within documented food safety and quality system elements such as procedures, HACCP Plans, and specifications.
Common sources of validation include regulatory and legislative standards, finished product specifications and customer requirements, industry codes of practice and guidelines, verified and validated research, historical product, and process control outcomes, and analytical testing.
The general goal of an established validation process is to ensure any inappropriate limits of control or acceptability are identified and rectified within an appropriate timeframe. When non-conformances are identified through the validation process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
Validation activities are commonly defined within the verification schedules and procedures of established food safety and quality management systems.
The following examples may apply to validation of the limits of control or acceptability for Chemical Control:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Validation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Validation Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Skills and Knowledge: Skills and knowledge are attributes of human interactions commonly linked to competency within any specific job-related task.
Training and competency requirements for Chemical Control must be ongoing, including regularly scheduled reviews to ensure the effectiveness of training and competency outcomes.
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Chemical Control should have knowledge including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Chemical Control should have skills including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Chemical Control should have access to resources including:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Chemical Control Training, Competency, and Resources requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Training, Competency, and Resources section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
haccp.com was created to support food businesses and food industry professionals in achieving and maintaining the stringent requirements of food industry compliance.