HACCP Hazard analysis and critical control point 5

Water quality management

The use of HACCP for water quality management was first proposed in 1994. Thereafter, a number of water quality initiatives applied HACCP principles and steps to the control of infectious disease from water, and provided the basis for the Water Safety Plan (WSP) approach in the third edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality report. This WSP has been described as “a way of adapting the HACCP approach to drinking water systems”.

Water quality management programme guidelines

Program Modernization: According to Ongley, 1998, a series of steps could be taken to execute a more useful transition – from technical programmes to policy to management decisions. Various aspects of the modernization process have been discussed by Ongley in ESCAP (1997):

• Policy reform – A consultative process must define all the policy tenets and should review the execution of the said policy tenets.
• Legal reform – Legal reform with respect to water quality management is one of the most crucial elements. This could be addressed by the creation of national data standards as well as the creation of a national process to analyze and review collected data.
• Institutional reform – This is a complex issue and has no simple answers. Still, there are some key principles that can be helpful for institutional reform in light of water quality management. One of them is water quality monitoring as a service function. Apart from that, both technical efficiency and capacity issues emerge as major factors in reformed water quality programs.
• Technical reform – This is the area that garners the most attention as well as investment. Such a reform targets facility modernization, including other co-factors like data programmes/networks, technical innovation, data management/data products and remediation.

HACCP for building water systems

Hazards associated with water systems in buildings include physical, chemical and microbial hazards. In 2013, NSF International, a public health and safety NGO, established education, training and certification programs in HACCP for building water systems. The programs, developed with the guidance of subject matter experts Aaron Rosenblatt and William McCoy center on the use of HACCP principles adapted to the specific requirements of domestic (hot and cold) and utility (HVAC, etc.) water systems in buildings, to prevent plumbing-associated hazards from harming people. Hazards addressed include scalding, lead, and disinfection byproducts as well as a range of clinically important pathogens, such as Legionella, Pseudomonas, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), Acinetobacter, Elizabethkingia, and Naegleria. Early adopters of HACCP for building water systems include leading healthcare institutions, notably the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System

ISO 22000 is a standard designed to help augment HACCP on issues related to food safety. Although several companies, especially big ones, have either implemented or are on the point of implementing ISO 22000, there are many others which are hesitant to do so. The main reason behind that is the lack of information and the fear that the new standard is too demanding in terms of bureaucratic work. ISO 22000 references the Codex Alimentarius General Principles of Food Hygiene, CXC 1-1969 which includes HACCP principles and 12 HACCP application steps. This is explained in a joint publication from ISO and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) which provides guidance to assist all organizations (including small and medium-sized) that recognize the potential benefits of implementing a Food Safety Management System.