Suggestions for a better HACCP system assessment in livestock product processing plants

축산물가공장 HACCP system 평가방법 개선방안

According to the Korean government policy of expanding HACCP system application to food chain from farm to meat market, the importance of HACCP assessment to keep balance among the certified HACCP plants is urged. The objective of this study is to recommend more effective HACCP assessment methods. We reviewed major foreign countries HACCP implementation policy focused on the audit system, and compared with the Korean HACCP assessment system. We found that the checklist guidelines of prerequisite program were not enough for precise evaluation and many of the items were not directly related to the risk occurrences. And current rating grade for each items and judgments were inadequate to induce non-compliances and corrections for better HACCP implementation. We suggest revision points as follows; (1) checklists should be revised and reorganized according to the possibility of risk occurrences, (2) all the items should be supported by detailed guidelines for more objective inspection, (3) non-compliances identified must be reconfirmed after correction, (4) the items for HACCP plan should be divided into an accreditation inspection and a regular inspection, (5) rating grade 'high', 'medium', 'low', 'failure' was better for indicating non-compliances.