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| • History of HACCP |
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The concepts for Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Point System (HACCP) originated from work done in the 1960's to help establishing the risk of Salmonella infection in food, and by work done on quality assurance system by NASA and the U.S. Military Tactic Laboratory. The HACCP system, as we know it today, took form at the 1971 National Conference on Food Protection, where risk assessments were combined with the critical control point concept (CCP). |
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The Pillsbury Company first used HACCP for the assurance of safety control intended for the U.S. Space Program. Pillsbury found the standard quality control methods were not reliable enough to come as close as possible to 100 % assurance that food used for the space program would be free from food borne hazards, particularly bacterial or viral hazards. The Pillsbury Company, led by Dr. Howard Baumann, successfully employed the HACCP system for space food safety and adopted it as a company-wide food protection system. |
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The core of HACCP is the Hazard Analysis, used to evaluate a food process (harvesting, distribution or manufacturing) and to identify all potential biological, chemical and physical hazards. These hazards are evaluated for their potential to cause harm and for the likelihood of their occurrence. Control points for the hazards are defined and Critical Control Points are established for points in the process that could result in harm if they are left uncontrolled. |
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The first comprehensive treatise on HACCP was also published in 1973 by The Pillsbury Company and was used to train the FDA inspectors in HACCP principles during the promulgation of the successful Federal Mandatory Regulation for canned acidified and low-acid foods in hermetically sealed containers. |
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| Shellfish production. Shrimp. The U.S. National Advisory Committees on Microbiological Criteria For Food (NACMCF) system defines HACCP as a systematic approach to be used in the shellfish production as a means to assure quality safety. The HACCP system must be developed by individual producers and tailored to their individual food production. |
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HACCP procedures are regularly monitored by federal and state health agencies, as well as Dotimex‘s own Quality Assurance staff. |
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| • What is quality ? |
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| Quality generally is not good or bad, but rather a definition of right or wrong. This means that the quality can be right for one customer and wrong for the other. |
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| Further, we can say the following : Quality is the right quantity of the right product for the right purpose, delivered at the right time to the right customer at the right price and terms. Sourcing right quality for you purpose can be a very difficult task for those that lack experience and insight in the shrimp and fish. |
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| We have through the years worked with clients in Eu, Mexico, Canada, China, Hongkong,.... and with suppliers in Vietnam. |
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Before shipment : You should ask for basic documentations to protect yourself and for your supplier from shipping out product that is not of the right quality. Even if you have been able to obtain payment after passage by The Health Authority in the import country, you should still do you best to protect yourself and your suppliers. Payment after passage does not mean that the product meets all your specifications. |
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Remember : It takes years to built trust and good business relationship, but it can be destroyed in no time, just because your and your supplier did not do the necessary homework properly. It is amazing to learn how sloppy business people can be because one of you or both of you relay a certain "unspoken" expectation, which you assumed has been built up between you. |
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Quality control at importers end : One thing is to advice the specifications; another part is to control the results. How do you go about controlling a net weight, net count consignment to determine that the received product is within your specifications ? There are certainly several ways to do this, but the main issue is to use a method to exercise this over and over again with as small variations as possible. Further, to do enough samples to make sure that you have received a product that meets the specifications. We all try to avoid surprises, which can be very costly. |
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Weight : Let us say that you have just received a container of cooked and peeled iqf (individual quick frozen) shrimp from you supplier. You will be storing the product for 1-2 months or more until usage. You need to find the expected yield and count of the consignment to do you calculations, since you intend to defrost the product or sell the product for a specific purpose, re-glazing and packing,.. etc. Your specifications are net weight and net count. So what do you do? The Master carton is a bulk pack = 10 net deglazed weight. You have specified 14-16 % glaze on the product. |
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