Question

Maria, an owner/operator of a family restaurant, realized that she needed to do more to keep her place safe. That meant taking charge of food safety in a more formal way than before. It was time to develop a food safety management system. Though she hadn’t had any formal training in HACCP, she wanted to develop a HACCP plan for her operation. Maria began by reviewing her menu to identify CCPs for each menu item. Most dishes on the menu were grilled items that were prepared, cooked, and then served. Maria determined that risks to these items could best be controlled through cooking, so she identified cooking as the CCP. Next, she identified critical limits for each CCP. For grilled hamburgers, she determined that cooking them to 155°F for 15 sec would reduce pathogens to a safe level. For grilled chicken, she knew it was necessary to cook it to 165°F for 15 sec. Maria decided to monitor the critical limits by having cooks press on the meat with their fingertips to check for doneness. As an additional safeguard, she required cooks to cut open the product to check the color for doneness. Maria knew she needed to identify a corrective action for products that had not been cooked enough. She decided that if the meat did not feel right, or if the color inside was not correct, cooks needed to keep cooking the meat. Maria knew that record keeping was often part of a HACCP program, but she wasn't sure what types of records to keep. She ended up deciding that they really weren't necessary for her operation. What did Maria do correctly? What mistakes did Maria make?

Answer 1

Maria correctly identified the critical control points (CCPs) and established critical limits and corrective actions for her HACCP plan. However, she made a mistake by deciding not to keep records, which is an important part of a HACCP program.

Step-by-step explanation:

There are several things that Maria did correctly when developing her HACCP plan. She identified cooking as the critical control point (CCP) for her grilled items, which is an appropriate choice.

She also determined the critical limits for each CCP, such as cooking hamburgers to 155°F for 15 seconds and chicken to 165°F for 15 seconds. Additionally, Maria established a corrective action for products that were not cooked enough, instructing cooks to keep cooking the meat if it did not feel right or if the color inside was not correct.

However, Maria made a mistake by deciding that record keeping was not necessary for her operation. Record keeping is an essential part of a HACCP program as it allows for tracking and monitoring of critical control points, corrective actions, and any potential hazards. Without proper record keeping, it becomes difficult to ensure the effectiveness of the food safety management system.