HACCP

What it is

The methodology's home is the Codex Alimentarius "General Principles of Food Hygiene", listed in FAO/WHO's official Codes of Practice register as CXC 1-1969, committee CCFH, last modified 2022. The full text could not be opened for this record (FAO's document routes require a login or block automated access), so the chapter naming inside the document is not asserted here — only the register entry is.

In the United States the obligation is product-scoped and federal. For seafood, 21 CFR § 123.6(b): "Every processor shall have and implement a written HACCP plan whenever a hazard analysis reveals one or more food safety hazards that are reasonably likely to occur". For juice, 21 CFR § 120.1(a): "Any juice sold as such or used as an ingredient in beverages shall be processed in accordance with the requirements of this part." For meat and poultry, 9 CFR § 417.2(b)(1) requires every official establishment to "develop and implement a written HACCP plan covering each product produced" where the hazard analysis reveals hazards.

One US distinction this record keeps deliberately sharp: FSMA's preventive-controls regime (21 CFR Part 117, "Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls") is not HACCP. The regulation itself separates them — § 117.5(b) and (c) exempt activities already subject to the seafood and juice HACCP parts from Part 117's preventive-controls subparts.

In the EU, Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 Article 5(1), read from the consolidated text in force: "Food business operators shall put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on the HACCP principles." The UK retains the same regulation in domestic law with identical Article 5(1) wording, and GOV.UK's guidance states: "Your food safety management system must meet the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles."

Canada's regime is a preventive control plan under the SFCR, not a HACCP plan by name; the CFIA's own sentence: the requirements are "based on internationally recognized principles of food hygiene, including Good Manufacturing Practices, Good Agricultural Practices, and the principles of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)."

None of the anchors quoted on this page requires purchasing a certificate: each requires operating procedures or a plan built on the HACCP principles. Privately-sold "HACCP certification" is a voluntary market service outside those legal texts as read for this record.

Who owns it

No single owner exists — that is the record's central class fact. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (FAO/WHO) publishes the methodology inside CXC 1-1969; it does not certify companies or accredit certification bodies. Legal force comes separately from each jurisdiction's instruments quoted above.

Who asks for it

Statutory (scoped). The legal pull is per-jurisdiction and product-scoped, not universal: US federal rules mandate HACCP for seafood, juice and meat/poultry; EU and UK law require "procedures based on the HACCP principles" of all food business operators; Canada's SFCR regime is a preventive control plan the regulator describes as based on HACCP principles. Each anchor is quoted on this page from its own source.

Regulators, by law and by product scope: FDA (seafood, juice), USDA-FSIS (meat and poultry, at official establishments), EU and UK food law (all food business operators, as procedures based on the HACCP principles), CFIA (through the SFCR preventive control plan regime). Japan and Taiwan carry their own statutory anchors on their linked country records.