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. This type of malicious threat is also referred to as Intentional Adulteration within the US Food Safety Modernization Act. Outside of the US, TACCP is more often called ‘food defense’.
HACCP
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 management system standard that is in use today, including GFSI food safety standards. 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
VACCP and TACCP are terms that emerged during the previous decade as standards agencies, government regulators and industry groups started considering methods to prevent food fraud and malicious tampering. VACCP is for food fraud and TACCP is for food defense.
The acronymns are designed to leverage the food industry’s familiarity with HACCP. However, the critical control ‘points’ in a VACCP and TACCP plan are, in fact, nothing like the ‘control points’ in a HACCP plan. 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 (=food defense)”.
More acronyms demystified here.
Learn more about food fraud here.
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