Hazard analysis - finding and assessing the hazards

Plain-language summary

Identify every realistic biological, chemical, physical and allergen hazard, decide which are significant, and choose how to control each one (HACCP principle 1).

What the clause is really asking

This is the heart of HACCP. Using your preliminary work, you identify the hazards reasonably expected at each step, assess each for severity and likelihood, and determine which are significant enough to need specific control. You then select control measures and categorise them - those managed by PRPs, by operational PRPs, or at critical control points. Get this wrong and the whole plan controls the wrong things.

What auditors look for

Auditors scrutinise the logic: are all hazard types covered including allergens, is the significance assessment justified, does the categorisation of control measures (CCP vs OPRP vs PRP) make sense and is it consistent. They will challenge a hazard that was dismissed without sound reasoning.

Typical evidence

Hazard analysis worksheets; significance/risk assessment rationale; control-measure selection and categorisation; decision logic for CCP/OPRP

How to comply — recommendations

Cover all four hazard groups plus allergens at every process step and document why each hazard is or is not significant - the reasoning matters as much as the conclusion. Apply a consistent method to decide whether a control is a CCP, an OPRP or a PRP. Keep current scientific and regulatory knowledge behind your judgements.

Common nonconformities

Allergens not assessed as hazards; significance decisions unjustified; inconsistent CCP/OPRP categorisation; hazards dismissed without rationale

Resources for this clause

• ArticleHACCP plan explained: the 12 steps, a worked hazard analysis, and where CCPs end and OPRPs begin
• Toolkit · $29HACCP Plan ToolkitA complete HACCP study in one workbook: rate likelihood and severity and the significance answers itself; answer five plain-English questions and the workbook tells you whether it is a CCP, an OPRP or a prerequisite programme.
• Free downloadHACCP Flow & Product Description TemplateThe first five steps of a HACCP study — the two documents every hazard you find later is built on, and the two where more studies go wrong than anywhere else.
• Free masterclass · ~20 minHACCP Plan MasterclassThe Codex 12 steps end to end on one worked product — the hazard analysis, the significance matrix, the five determination questions, and the honest test for telling a CCP from an OPRP.