Continuous monitoring is important to an HACCP system because of potential food risks during the production process. If something goes wrong, it is important to catch it immediately before the product is beyond repair.
monitoring
introducing controls identifying hazards monitoring the controls taking corrective action
The Seven Steps to HACCPareConduct a Hazard AnalysisIdentify Critical Control PointsEstablish Critical LimitsEstablish Monitoring ProceduresEstablish Corrective ActionsEstablish Verification ProceduresRecord Keeping Procedure
In HACCP, CCPs are identified that are points in the system where controlling the parameters are critical to producing safe food. Essentially, if you don't monitor your CCPs continually, you are less likely to realise if something has gone wrong. If you monitor temperature at 15 minute intervals and something goes wrong, you can quarantine 15 minutes worth of production. The longer the interval, the more product is wasted and the more difficult it is to control.
Safer food better business
The control measure is the condition or parameter that controls a hazard. For example, refrigeration under 38°F will control the growth of C. botulinum in vacuum-packaged smoked salmon.The monitoring procedure is the system whereby the conditions are recorded to make sure the limits for controlling the hazard are not exceeded. For the vacuum-packaged smoked salmon, that could be a continuous recording thermometer and/or a manual temperature log. For temperature monitoring, that would include time frames, since hazards related to temperature always have associated time frames.
HACCP is generally related to microbiological high risk foods, but any food could be the source of illness - so any food could have a HACCP plan.For example, bread might not be considered high risk, but it could be subject to physical (metal, wood, insects, etc.) and chemical (cleaners, mislabeled ingredient, etc.) hazards. A bakery would benefit from a HACCP plan.
Meat products, poultry products, and fruit juices. High risk foods give the most benefit with HACCP plans. However, almost all processed foods are now using HACCP plans.
Someone has to verify that the HACCP plan is working and being followed. That cannot be done without records. According to regulatory agencies, if there are no records, then it wasn't done.
HACCP is generally related to microbiological high risk foods, but any food could be the source of illness - so any food could have a HACCP plan.For example, bread might not be considered high risk, but it could be subject to physical (metal, wood, insects, etc.) and chemical (cleaners, mislabeled ingredient, etc.) hazards. A bakery would benefit from a HACCP plan.
Heating and filtering is most likely the most common CCPs in food safety.
You can find more information about HACCP requirements in this PDF document: http://meat.tamu.edu/pdf/docket98006N.pdf