analysis of dangerous factors and critical control points (on the basis of HACCP
system) represented in Regulations № 852/2004 on the General sanitary rules and
Regulations № 853/2004 on the approval of special hygiene rules for foodstuffs of
animal origin [3, 4, 6, 8, 11].
Microbiological criteria consist of the following components:
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definition of certain microorganisms or their toxins/metabolites and adverse
effects that they can cause;
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analytical research methods and standard deviation in case it is reasonable;
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the plan, which specifies the number of sample sand the size of the analytic
calunit;
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microbiological limits that belong to the food product at certain unit of the
food chain;
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the number of analytical units must meet these demands.
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Microbiological criteria shall also define:
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food stuff this criterion is applied to;
-
the unit of the food chain, the criterion is applied in;
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measures to betaken in case the criterion is not used.
Microbiological criteria can be used differently depending on the place of its
application and the procedure to be taken in case of inadequacy.
The criteria set for end products (food safety criteria) can be applied to food
products ready for distribution to the market or already distributed to the market that
are applied at the stage of food products sale, delivering them both to the end users and
retailers. These criteria are applied at points of foodstuff entry at the territory of the EU
in the case of its imports from the third countries.
The defined hygiene criteria for the technological processes are applied to food
enterprises that manufacture or produce food. They are set for a food product at certain
stages of its manufacturing and are not applied to foodstuffs that are already distributed
to the market, which are usually used to test the technological processes of production
and manufacture of food products, and, for example, may indicate the observance of
proper hygienic practices and help to understand the level of HACCP system
functioning.
Food safety criteria are mandatory in themselves, and hygiene criteria of
technological processes are more like recommendations. Failure in following the
mandatory type of criteria leads to disproducts, sorting, recycling or removal of certain
food products or their production lots out of the market. Failure in following the criteria
in the form of recommendations usually leads to using the correcting activities to the
process of food processing. Contents of the correcting activities are determined by
market operators of food products.
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