It is really easy to confuse verification and validation. Validation is a subset of verification, so when you are validating, you are verifying, though the converse is not true. Confused yet?
Verification= are you doing what you say you are doing?
Validation= is what you are doing protecting the public health?
Validation requires collecting and evaluating scientific and technical information to determine if the HACCP plan, when implemented correctly will effectively control the identified hazards (paraphrasing from a NACMCF definition).
Validating your HACCP means that you are assuring the plan is adequate for controlling food safety hazards. If that seems like a big task, it is because it is. You can't find a scientific paper that validates an individual HACCP plan as a whole. But, you can break it up and validate the CCPs. Every CCP needs to be validated. Taken together validated CCPs validate your HACCP.
So, start googling. But not just anywhere. Read up on your regulatory agency and validation
Start with those resources and look for scientific papers that pertain to the process you are working on. Then start looking at the known physical, chemical, and microbiological hazards in your process.
Then, ask around to see if you are on track. Ask your extension agent for help. Shoot me an email, I'm always up for a conversation about food safety!
Once you have scientific papers to back up your CCPs, look at your actual process to see if it is delivering those critical limits. Is your bacon being smoked at 144F? Every single slab? In all parts of the smoker? Every single time? Got records to prove it? How about your cooler? Is it supposed to be below 41F? Is it? In all parts, even right next to the door? How are you going to test it? Do you have records to prove it?
Validation can be hard, make sure you are doing it right.
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