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HACCP, VACCP and TACCP

HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)  Pronounced ‘hassup’.  HACCP = food safety.

VACCP (Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘vassup’.  VACCP = prevention of economically motivated food fraud.

TACCP (Threat Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘tassup’.  TACCP = prevention of malicious threats to food, such as sabotage, extortion or terrorism.

HACCP is a set of principles designed to control and prevent food safety risks during food production.  The ideas of HACCP form the basis of every food safety standard that is in use today.  HACCP is not owned or regulated by any organisation.  The principles of HACCP are codified (written down) by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is part of the United Nations (UN), in a set of documents called the Codex Alimentarius , a latin phrase which translates to “Book of Food”.   The principles of HACCP are described in the Annex of the Codex document GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOOD HYGIENE CAC/RCP 1-1969.  You can download a copy of the code of practice here and you can view the Annex containing the principles of HACCP here.

VACCP and TACCP are relatively new terms that have emerged in the last ten years as standards agencies, government regulators and industry groups have been talking more about how to prevent food fraud and malicious tampering.  The general idea is to create new preventive systems similar to the ideas behind HACCP.  We know that HACCP is effective at preventing inadvertent contamination, and more importantly it is well understood by food businesses, auditors, standards writers and regulators.  So take the ideas of HACCP, replace the ‘Hazard’ with ‘Vulnerability’ or ‘Threat’ and go for it, right?

The idea sounds good in theory, but what about in practice?  The critical control ‘points’ in a VACCP and TACCP plan do not look much like the ‘control points’ in a HACCP plan at all. The control points in a HACCP plan are operational steps in a manufacturing process; the process is generally linear and the ‘control points’ are operational processes over which the food manufacturer can exercise direct control.

In contrast, the actions that are required to prevent deliberate tampering within a food supply chain do not sit comfortably on a linear set of operations.  The terms VACCP and TACCP are falling out of favour within the food fraud and food defense communities.  They are not referenced specifically within any of the GFSI food safety standards, nor within the USA’s FSMA.  It is much better practice to say “Vulnerabilities to food fraud” or “threats of malicious tampering”.

More acronyms demystified here.

Learn more about food fraud here.

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food safety food fraud

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Learn the lingo; food fraud terms explained

Food fraud occurs when food or drink is sold in a way that deliberately misleads or deceives consumers or customers for financial gain (Food Fraud Advisors, 2015)

(other definitions)

Food fraud occurs in two different forms:

1. Fraudulent activity that does not involve tampering with the food itself:

This includes activity such as avoidance of taxes, duties and quota restrictions (fishing), fraudulent paperwork such as forged importation documents, misrepresentation of origin, changing best-before dates and counterfeiting of popular brands.

2. Adulteration of food for economic gain:

This is sometimes referred to as economically motivated adulteration or EMA.  In this phrase, the word ‘adulteration’ is used to encompass many types of tampering, such as adding unauthorised substances, substituting undeclared substances for genuine components of a food or diluting a food product with cheaper substances.

Food fraud is a type of food crime, with food crime including food fraud and other activities such as the use of food shipments to mask drug trafficking and money-laundering through the trading of food and food commodities.

food fraud,defense,safety,security

Food fraud and the risks it presents to the food industry is a separate subject to food safety, although fraud-affected food can be unsafe.  Food safety relates to unintentional contamination of food and the presence of naturally occurring contaminants.

Food defence is a term that has come to be defined as the effort to prevent acts of adulteration that are intended to cause harm to a food business or to consumers, such as acts of terrorism or attempted extortion.

Food security, as defined by the World Health Organisation exists “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.

Risk or vulnerability?  In the language of food fraud, the term risk is usually replaced with the term ‘vulnerability’, so food standards bodies are increasingly talking about vulnerability assessments rather than risk assessments.  ‘Vulnerability’ is used because food fraud ‘risks’ do not exactly fit with the accepted definition of risk as something that has occurred frequently, will occur again and for which there is enough data to make quantitative assessments.  Vulnerability is a better term for food fraud, due to the fact that the ‘risk’ of a specific fraudulent activity occurring cannot be quantitatively assessed.

Horizon scanning is another term that has been co-opted to the language of food fraud.  Horizon scanning is the act of looking for and analysing threats and opportunities that will emerge in the medium to long term.  It is used across many industries, including the financial and health care industries.  Within the food industry, horizon scanning refers to the act of collecting information about current trends in food production and predicted incidences that could increase the likelihood of food fraud for a particular food material.  For example, climate change is likely to affect coffee production which could drive up prices and increase fraudulent activity in that sector.  Click here for the complete low-down on horizon scanning.

TACCP: Threat Assessment Critical Control Point.  TACCP = prevention of malicious threats to food.

VACCP: Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point.  VACCP = food fraud prevention.  Learn more about TACCP and VACCP here.