HACCP based quality assurance systems in the meat industry

Summary

​This project was commenced in March 1996 and was completed at the end of August 1997.
The project has been part funded by the Meat Research Corporation under its Food Safety Key Program. Other funding was provided by the Department ofIndustry, Science and Tourism under the Department's Food Quality Program.
This final report as been prepared to present project results to the Meat Research Corporation. All project activities have been completed, and it is now possible to:
report the substantive outcomes for the project participants including enterprise level improvements made since the beginning of the project
provide examples of the materials distributed to industry in the course of the project
report on the achievements of the communication program conducted to inform industry of the project outcomes.
Phase 1 was the set up phase of the project. By December 1996 the project had progressed in the following areas:
establishment of enterprise level HACCP teams
conducted a preliminary audit of each site
undertaken systems design including generic materials
undertaken customisation activities at sites
undertaken field testing of company procedures
sought initial certification of systems by the Regulatory Authorities
reviewed commercial trials
commenced preparation of a package to deliver the systems
Further Phase 2 activities were conducted in early to mid 1997, including:
four review workshops held to review the preparation of plant level systems in conjunction with the State and Federal regulatory authorities. these workshops assisted the plants in the project to identify improvement opportunities for their systems, and to enable the regulatory authorities to improve the consistency of their audit and review functions
two day internal audit training courses provided to enterprises in the project to ensure that skills existed to provide the basis of management review of systems, and to start the continuous improvement cycle
attendance of delegates at an international HACCP conference which provided valuable information on the latest trends in HACCP systems design, particularly the trend towards documentation of industry best practice in prerequisite programs
a series of workshops held with regulatory authorities to address the issues of the use of HACCP systems as a regulatory tool, and the development of protocols for HACCP audit, These workshops fed back to the ARMCANZ Meat Standards Group for endorsement of the protocols