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Organized improvement is The objective behind HACCP. How painlessly that is accomplished depends on the degree of automation.
REASONABLE DEBATE OVER THE VALUE OF HACCP (hazard analysis critical control points) planning by food and beverage processors ended in the last century. Whether by government edict or customer insistence, most food manufacturers are being challenged to formulate documented procedures that validate their food safety efforts.
The question today is, how well is that HACCP plan integrated into plant automation systems?
Ever since the HACCP bandwagon started rolling in the mid-1990s, plant managers have been grousing about the record-keeping aspects. "A paper chase," many have fumed. The obvious solution is to automate as much of the data collection and reporting functions as possible, but opportunities are limited by the flexibility of existing systems, company culture and other factors.
Pride in professionalism has prompted some processors to embrace HACCP. "It's the continuous improvement loop," explains Brad Hagan, director of brewery operations at Latrobe Brewing Co. in Latrobe, Pa., which became the first North American brewery to achieve HACCP certification earlier this year. Latrobe, which produces Rolling Rock beer, is a unit of the Labatt Division of Interbrew, the world's sixth largest brewery.
"We always felt we had a good food safety program, but it was internal and had never been tested against a standard," says Hagan. "Nobody mandates this for the brewing industry. But we have a quilt of breweries all over the world, and we need an internal mechanism to bring them all up to a uniform standard. HACCP is it."
While brewers have used sensors, controls and other automation technology for decades, automation of HACCP has not been a slamdunk. Some aspects of the HACCP plan have been integrated into automation systems in Latrobe, but manual logging likely will be part of the execution for some time. "Operators are not necessarily computer literate," explains Jessica Hudale, the plant's HACCP coordinator, making paper-and-pen the data-capture tool of necessity for some reports.
Long, winding road
HACCP is a continuous improvement process, and automating its elements is more likely to occur in increments than in one sweep. No one in the food industry has been at it longer than HACCP pioneer Pillsbury, and even that organization continues...