HAZARD ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL CONTROL POINTS SYSTEM OPTIMIZATION IN A STARCH FACTORY

The starch is a product obtained through the wet-milling of corn after the germs, hulls and protein separation. Because it is used as raw material in the food industry, safety assurance during its production is important. The hazard analysis and critical control points is a management system which aims to assure the safety of the food products by the identification, controlling and prevention of microbiological, chemical and physical hazards. Even if the production process of the corn starch is an aggressive one and unfavorable to the microorganism’s multiplication, some food safety hazards still exist. This paper aims to review the international literature and the general guidelines of food safety assurance in order to optimize the HACCP system already implemented in a starch factory. Several control and critical control points were identified and for each one a specific monitoring procedure was elaborated. Also, several preliminary programs were identified and centralized in order to prevent the hazards occurrence.