All who are involved in producing and preparing food, which includes stalkers operating under the exemptions provided for in the EC Food Hygiene Regulations, are responsible for making sure that, as far as possible, the food supplied is safe to eat. Those involved in processing (as opposed to those who only ever supply in-skin carcasses) also have to put in place food safety management procedures based on the HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point) principles.1 (Note: A Critical Control Point (CCP) is a point, step or procedure at which controls can be applied and a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable (critical) levels).
To produce safe food for consumers, all the important safety hazards that are associated with the production of food need to be prevented, eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level. These food safety hazards may be biological, physical or chemical (see table 1 ).
The HACCP principles provide a systematic way of identifying food safety hazards, making sure they are being managed responsibly by the food business operator and showing this is being done day-in, day-out. In short this involves the following steps:
Plan: Decide what needs to be done to maintain food safety and write it down;
Do: Do what you said you would do;
Check: Check that you are doing what you planned to do and write down what was checked and when;
Act: Take action to correct any food safety problems and write down what has been done about the problem and when.
Hygiene Hazards
In order to produce safe food for consumers, the hazards associated with the production of food need to be identified, then prevented, eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level. These food safety hazards are categorised in table 2.