The food manufacturing standards formulated and implemented according to the GMP method mainly focus on which aspects?
Shanghai Nena Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. www.nclep.com.cn
What are the main aspects focused on in the formulation and implementation of food manufacturing standards according to the GMP method?
(1) The safety assurance of all kinds of raw materials and intermediate products at each process.
(2) Prevention of various types of contamination. To avoid the attachment and mixing of impurities, heavy metals, pesticide residues, pathogens causing food poisoning or microorganisms harmful to food quality in food, effective measures must be taken to really prevent contamination from factory facilities, operating environment, machinery, airborne bacteria deposition, and operators.
(3) Strengthening technical management in processes, implementing double checks, establishing inspection systems and quality management systems for each process, and measures for error prevention.
(4) Trademark management.
(5) Preservation of management records.
Ensuring the safety of food and improving food quality, daily hygiene management in food factories is very important. In the US, GMP adopts the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) method, focusing on hazard analysis of raw materials and key management during the manufacturing process as the focus of microbial management, systematically managing the entire manufacturing process.
As described above, Food GMP is established throughout the entire food manufacturing process from raw materials to products, aiming to fully implement hygiene and quality management, exclude unhygienic food, and ensure high-quality food. This is quite different from the quality management system centered on product sampling inspections.
The GMP for low-acid canned foods in the US was formulated in response to botulism outbreaks in canned foods sold in the late 1960s. Its contents include general items, machinery, content, can containers, seaming, production process management, records, and reports. Among these, especially regarding key processes in can production such as sterilization and seaming, including the structure of sterilizers, temperature management, inspection methods for the seaming section, etc., there are extremely detailed regulations. For canned food exported to the US, it must be declared separately by the factory and for each canned variety, based on the heating sterilization value (F0) and heat transfer curve, the heating time is calculated and reported accordingly. Other foods also have their own GMPs. Therefore, Food GMP is not only a food manufacturing specification but also a technical standard that must be followed in food manufacturing. GMP is an advanced method and successful experience in food quality management in developed countries and is the key to ensuring food hygiene quality.
Currently, food specifications or food hygiene regulations vary greatly among countries worldwide. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and WHO have established the International Food Standards Committee, dedicated to the unification of food specifications and coordination of food hygiene regulations to promote international food trade. It is expected that specifications and standards in food, its manufacturing and processing technology, food additives, and other aspects of food hygiene will gradually become internationalized.
Our country has already issued fifteen categories of norms, including "Hygiene Norms for Canned Food Factories" and "Hygiene Norms for Dairy Product Factories," which are included in the regulations as national standards and required to be implemented nationwide.
Our country's food enterprise hygiene norms are equivalent to the widely used GMP management methods abroad. The issuance and implementation of our country's GMP play a positive and important role in further enforcing the Food Hygiene Law, ensuring food safety and hygiene, accelerating the improvement of the sanitary appearance of food factories, achieving standardization and normalization of hygiene management, and safeguarding people's health.