HACCP and transparency

Twenty years after its first publication in the US, the HACCP system of food safety approached its current pinnacle of success in 1992 with the virtually simultaneous publication of HACCP principles and guidelines for application documents by the NACMCF and the CAC/CFH. Since then, the necessary foundation of prerequisite programs has been elaborated. Both HACCP documents were refined in 1997. All of these developments were entirely transparent. In recent years, the US regulatory agencies have promulgated three major HACCP rules for specific segments of the industry: meat and poultry products (1996), fish and fishery products (1997), and juices (2001). These specific HACCP rules, rather than maintaining the transparency of the global HACCP documents, have clouded the waters. A somewhat similar development can be noted in the EU's application of its precautionary principle. HACCP cannot provide greater transparency in the food supply chain in the context of this type of opaque regulatory environment. Rather, greater transparency, and improved public health protection, must be realized through the development of voluntary science based systems, especially involving the food processing industry, where the very idea of HACCP was conceived and implemented.