The regulatory framework
Apart from the administrative aspect of food traceability, it is important that your customers are reassured by your good food management.
Zest HACCP helps you to comply with the regulations and HACCP principles in order to avoid any dispute with a consumer.
Food Safety Management System (FSMS)
It describes the measures taken by professionals to ensure the hygiene and safety of their products with regard to biological, physical and chemical hazards.
The FSMS enables compliance with the food safety objectives set by European regulations in the “Hygiene Package”.
It is a set of documents that is mandatory for all establishments that store, prepare and distribute food. The FSMS includes:
- Good hygiene practices
- HACCP standards
- The traceability system
Management of good hygiene practices (GHP)
For the implementation of your Food Safety Management System, you can and should consult the guide to good hygiene practices for your sector.
Consult the guides to Good Hygiene Practices (GHP)
In this guide to good hygiene practices, you will find all the good practices aimed at managing the safety of food, feed and animal by-products, according to your sector.
Your guide will also set out the regulatory obligations to be met, in particular the hygiene requirements defined by the regulations (EC) no. 852/2004, 183/2005 and 1069/2009.
The guide to good hygiene practices is a document produced by professionals for professionals. It serves as a reference for official inspections of professionals in the food supply chain.
The objective of the guide is to share the first steps of the HACCP approach by putting in place concrete health management elements, specific to each food sector and adapted to the structure of the company concerned.
HACCP plan validated and updated daily
The HACCP system (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is a food safety management method developed in the USA by a NASA laboratory. It is innovative in its approach to continuous improvement and self-inspections.
The use of the HACCP method allows food industry professionals to anticipate possible problems, reassure their partners and have a constant focus on food safety.
The HACCP method is based on seven principles to identify, evaluate and describe management measures:
- Conduct a hazard analysis;
- Determine critical control points (CCPs);
- Establish critical limits;
- Establish monitoring procedures to manage CCPs;
- Establish corrective actions to be taken when monitoring reveals that a particular CCP is not under control;
- Establish verification procedures to confirm that the HACCP system is working effectively;
- Establish record-keeping and documentation procedures relating to these principles and their application.
In summary, the HACCP standards help to:
- identify hazards that may affect product safety;
- put in place measures to control these hazards;
- provide evidence that these measures are appropriate.
Traceability system
Food traceability is carried out and ensured by many players: producer, quality, logistics, storekeeper, and purchasing.
It makes it possible to track the life of the product and, in the event of a problem with the product, to be able to trace its origin.
The European regulation is one of the strictest with regard to professionals in order to ensure the fullest transparency to consumers.
In practice, and more generally, traceability is everywhere. In particular, you must:
- Prove the suitability of the staff: medical fitness and appropriate training;
- Inspect the goods received;
- Manage the positive and negative temperatures of your facilities;
- Control cooking temperatures and manage oil changes;
- Clean and disinfect according to a cleaning plan;
- Trace the origin of raw materials used in manufacturing.
Health approval
Health approval is authorisation given by the departmental prefect that certifies compliance with health standards by establishments that deal with products of animal origin (meat, fish, ready-made meals, etc.).
These establishments must apply for health approval for each of their activities. Example of a label:
Training
It is mandatory. Staff must be trained in hygiene rules in accordance with the French decree of 24 June 2011 and the French orders of 5 October 2011 and 25 November 2011.
The employees concerned must be able to organise and manage their activities in hygienic conditions that comply with the regulations and are satisfactory to customers.
The training is provided by bodies declared and registered with the competent authorities.
It is intended for professionals with a fixed or mobile catering activity, but also for caterers with seated and/or stand-up dining allowing customers to consume the purchased dishes on the premises.
The training lasts a minimum of 14 hours. Sanctions may be applied if this training has not been completed.
Management of non-conforming products
Your establishment must manage non-conforming products to prevent using or supplying them unintentionally.
You must establish a documented procedure to define the inspections and the responsibilities for handling non-conforming products.
Digitising your Food Safety Management System (FSMS) with Zest HACCP allows you to manage non-conforming products easily and in accordance with food traceability regulations.
In fact, digitising the management of your non-conforming products helps you to avoid human errors. Zest HACCP automatically manages your products with a use-by date and a date of minimum durability (best-before date), so you won’t have any more forgotten products on your shelves that can lead to heavy fines in the event of inspection by the health authorities.
Digitising the management of non-conforming products frees up your employees’ time so that they can focus on other more important tasks.