What is the purpose of establishing critical limits in a HACCP plan?

Establishing critical limits in a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan is essential to ensure food safety. Critical limits provide specific criteria, such as temperature or time, that must be met at each critical control point (CCP) in the food production process to prevent, eliminate, or reduce hazards to an acceptable level. These defined limits are based on scientific evidence and are designed to keep food safe from biological, chemical, or physical hazards.

When critical limits are established, they serve as benchmarks to evaluate whether the control measures put in place are effective. For example, if a critical limit is a cooking temperature, monitoring to ensure that food reaches that temperature is crucial for minimizing the risk of foodborne illnesses. Monitoring procedures help to ensure compliance with those limits, but they do not serve the primary purpose of establishing the limits themselves—preventing hazards is the main focus.

In terms of the other options, defining cooking times or outlining monitoring procedures are important components of a HACCP plan, but they do not capture the primary purpose of critical limits. Conducting a hazard analysis is also critical in HACCP, as it identifies potential hazards, but critical limits are fundamentally about the controls in place to manage those hazards.