CXC 1-1969 2
1. INTRODUCTION
People have the right to expect the food that they eat to be safe and suitable for consumption. Foodborne
illness and foodborne injury can be severe or fatal or have a negative impact on human health over the longer
term. Furthermore, outbreaks of foodborne illness can damage trade and tourism. Food spoilage is wasteful,
costly, threatens food security and can adversely affect trade and consumer confidence.
International food trade and the flow of travellers are increasing, bringing important social and economic
benefits. However, this also makes the spread of illness around the world easier. Eating habits have undergone
major changes in many countries and new food production, preparation, storage, and distribution techniques
have developed to reflect this. Effective food hygiene practices, therefore, are vital to avoid the adverse human
health and economic consequences of foodborne illness, foodborne injury, and food spoilage. Everyone,
including primary producers, importers, manufacturers and processors, food warehouse/logistics operators,
food handlers, retailers, and consumers, has a responsibility to ensure that food is safe and suitable for
consumption. Food business operators (FBOs) should be aware of and understand the hazards associated
with the food they produce, transport, store and sell, and the measures required to control those hazards
relevant to their business, so that food reaching consumers is safe and suitable for use.
This document outlines the general principles that should be understood and followed by FBOs at all stages
of the food chain and that provide a basis for competent authorities to oversee food safety and suitability.
Taking into account the stage in the food chain, the nature of the product, the relevant contaminants, and
whether the relevant contaminants adversely affect safety, suitability or both, these principles will enable food
businesses to develop their own food hygiene practices and necessary food safety control measures, while
complying with requirements set by competent authorities. While it is the FBOs’ responsibility to provide safe
food, for some FBOs this may be as simple as ensuring that the WHO five keys to safer food
are adequately
implemented. The five keys are: “keep clean, separate raw and cooked, cook thoroughly, keep food at safe
temperatures and use safe water and raw materials”.
FBOs need to be aware of hazards that may affect their food. FBOs need to understand the consequences of
these hazards for consumer health and should ensure that they are properly managed. Good hygiene practices
(GHPs) are the foundation of any effective control of hazards associated with their businesses. For some FBOs,
effective implementation of GHPs will be sufficient to address food safety.
The sufficiency of the implemented GHPs to address food safety could be determined through conducting a
hazard analysis and determining how to control identified hazards. However, not all FBOs have the expertise
to do this. If the FBO is not able to conduct a hazard analysis, the FBO may rely on information on appropriate
food safety practices from external sources such as those provided by competent authorities, academia or
other competent bodies (e.g. trade associations or professional societies) that have been based on the
identification of relevant hazards and controls. For example, requirements in regulations for production of safe
food are based on hazard analysis often conducted by competent authorities. Similarly, guidance documents
from trade associations and other organizations that describe food safety procedures are based on hazard
analyses conducted by experts about the hazards and controls needed to ensure the safety of specific types
of products. When external generic guidance is used, the FBO should make sure that the guidance
corresponds with the activities of the establishment and ensure all relevant hazards are controlled.
All GHPs are important but some GHPs have a greater impact on food safety. Thus, for some GHPs, based
on safety concerns with food, greater attention may be needed to provide safe food. For example, the cleaning
of equipment and surfaces which come into contact with ready-to-eat food should warrant greater attention
than other areas such as the cleaning of walls and ceilings, because if food contact surfaces are not properly
cleaned, this could lead to direct contamination of food. Greater attention may include a higher frequency of
application, of monitoring and of verification.
In some circumstances, the implementation of GHPs may not be sufficient to ensure food safety due to the
complexity of the food operation and/or specific hazards associated with the product or process, technological
advances (e.g. extending shelf-life through modified atmosphere packaging) or end use of the product
(e.g. products destined for a special dietary purpose). In such cases, when there are significant hazards
identified through hazard analysis as not being controlled by GHPs, they should be addressed in the hazard
analysis critical control point (HACCP) plan.
This document has two parts, Good Hygiene Practices, and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point
(HACCP) System and Guidelines for its Application. The first covers the basis of all food hygiene systems
to support the production of safe and suitable food, and the second deals with HACCP principles that can be
applied throughout the food chain from primary production to final consumption and whose implementation
should be guided by scientific evidence of risks to human health. Table 1 in Annex I provides a comparison of
control measures applied as GHPs and those applied at critical control points (CCPs) with examples.