**3. Food safety systems**

Effective food control systems are needed to improve the applicability and control of food safety [77]. Currently, the HACCP, ISO 22000 and PAS 220 are the most commonly used internationally approved food safety systems.

#### **3.1. Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP)**

HACCP was first used in the 1960s by the American Pillsbury company for the purpose of producing "zero defect" products for the US Army and NASA. Later, starting in the 1970s, it began to be used as a reference by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in official supervisions. It was adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1992 and published as the HACCP international standard for the first time. Since then, the food industry and official authorities have been using it to protect against and control the risks of potential dangers that could threaten food safety [78].

Initially, HAACCP had three principles:


The HACCP, as it is applied today, has five starting steps and is governed by seven principles. The starting steps were created by Codex, and they should be completed prior to implementing the seven HACCP principles. The starting steps help to ensure that the HACCP system is implemented and managed in the most effective way possible [79].

The HAACP system is applicable for any company operating within the food chain, regardless of their size. In the implementation stage, the HACCP system should be supported by certain preliminary condition programs. A company interested in implementing this system should already be following the requirements of this preliminary condition program. Preliminary condition programs include national regulations, codes of practice or other food safety prerequisites. In general, preliminary condition programs involve factories and equipment, staff training, cleaning and sanitation, maintenance chemical control, waste management, storage and transportation [78].


**Table 3.** HACCP Implementation in 12 Steps

HACCP is an internationally accepted system and in most countries, it is required that companies within the food industry implement this system.

#### **3.2. ISO 22000**

In 2005, The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published a standard for the Food Safety Management System known as ISO 22000. The ISO 22000 system is a combination of preliminary condition programs, HACCP principles and implementation steps defined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and ISO 9001:2000 standard components. After it was defined, it began to be used in more than 50 countries within 2 years [80].

The basic approach of the ISO 22000 standard is to implement a preventive system that serves to protect consumers from foodborne diseases. This standard controls all the processes in the food chain, including infrastructure, staff and equipment. In business establishments, the Food Safety Management System implementations include production control, product control, equipment control, maintenance, general hygiene practices, staff and visitor hygiene, trans‐ portation, storage, product information, training, the selection and evaluation of suppliers, communication and other similar issues [81].

The main goal of this standard is to have a system in place that determines the unacceptable risks that may result from process errors and to secure product safety and consumer health. Food safety supervision over product, design, production and quality control determines and eliminates the potential dangers. The fundamental role of ISO 22000 is not only to provide food safety but also to improve the sensory and nutritional quality of food, and it also plays a primary role in the quality assurance of service practices in industrial production. Lastly, this standard helps to reduce operational losses by instituting a more effective use of resources to increase productivity, and thereby, directs the establishment to a system of total quality [80].

#### **3.3. PAS 220 (publicly available specification)**

This standard was created by the major global food producers in cooperation with the Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA) with the purpose of eliminating the weaknesses of the ISO 22000 food safety system standard. Nestle, Unilever, Danone and Kraft, the sector leaders generally known as "G4", collectively published the PAS 220 standard, which refines the preliminary conditions programs. The PAS 220 standard is applicable for all types of companies and was made available in 2008. It was intended that the PAS 220 standard be used together with the internationally accepted ISO 22000 standard [82].

The content and topics of PAS 220 elaborate on the 10 sub-titles in the ISO 22000 standard and adds 5 of its own, resulting in the following 15 items [82]:

