Implementation of traceability and food safety systems (HACCP) under the ISO 22000:2005 standard in North Africa: The case study of an ice cream company in Algeria

- A traceability food safety System was successfully installed in an ice cream factory.
- Microbiological, chemical, physical and allergens hazards were identified.
- Control measures were successfully applied for the elaboration and distribution processes.
- Implementation of the Food safety system resulted in an improvement of ice cream quality.

Our study aims at establishing and implementing the HACCP and traceability system, in an integrated approach, of ice cream processing in order to control food borne safety hazards, to minimize the production and distribution of unsafe or poor quality products, thereby the potential food safety risks and associated food recalls. Internal information capture points were identified in ice cream process and the corresponding traceability information to be recorded were determined. Biological, physical, chemical and allergens hazards that could emerge at each stage of the production were identified. After hazards identification, the critical control points (CCPs) and operational prerequisites programs (oPRPs) were selected using a decision tree. Results showed that cleaning-in-place, filtration, pasteurization, cooling storage and transport stages were the critical control points identified. Critical limits, monitoring methods and frequency, responsibilities and corrective actions of the processes are also presented. Finally, the impact of implementation of food safety system (HACCP) on aerobic plate count (APC) and coliforms in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavoured ice cream was investigated. The results of HACCP adoption showed the reduction of APC in all flavours of the ice cream samples tested, being higher for the strawberry from 4.18 ± 3.03 till 3.80 ± 2.71 log CFU/g. Besides, a significant decrease of coliforms from 2.39 ± 1.76 till 2.11 ± 1.42 and 2.54 ± 1.62 till 2.02 ± 1.15 log CFU/g was observed in ice cream samples with a chocolate and strawberry flavour, respectively. In conclusion, the implementation of traceability and HACCP system, under the ISO 22000 standard has allowed tracking and tracing of ice cream products improving the microbiological quality of the ice creams.