What is HACCP and how can it be used by operators and regulators of retail food and food service establishments?
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating, and controlling food safety hazards. Food safety hazards are biological, chemical, or physical agents that are reasonably likely to cause illness or injury in the absence of their control. Because a HACCP program is designed to ensure that hazards are prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level before a food reaches the consumer, it embodies the preventive nature of "active managerial control."
Active managerial control through the use of HACCP principles is achieved by identifying the food safety hazards attributed to products, determining the necessary steps that will control the identified hazards, and implementing on-going practices or procedures that will ensure safe food.
Like many other quality assurance programs, HACCP provides a common-sense approach to identifying and controlling problems that are likely to exist in an operation. Consequently, many food safety management systems at the retail level already incorporate some, if not all, of the principles of HACCP. Combined with good basic sanitation, a solid employee training program, and other prerequisite programs, a food safety management system based on HACCP principles will prevent, eliminate, or reduce the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors that lead to out-of-control hazards.
HACCP represents an important tool in food protection that small independent businesses as well as national companies can use to achieve active managerial control of risk factors. The Food Code requires a comprehensive HACCP plan when conducting certain specialized processes at retail such as when a variance is granted or when a reduced oxygen packaging method is used. However, in general, the implementation of HACCP at the retail level is voluntary. FDA endorses the voluntary implementation of food safety management systems based on HACCP principles as an effective means for controlling the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors that result in out-of-control hazards.

The Seven HACCP Principles.
Dating back to 1992, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) defined seven widely accepted HACCP principles that explained the HACCP process in great detail. In 1997 these documents were reviewed and again endorsed HACCP and defined HACCP as a systematic approach to the identification, evaluation, and control of food safety. Based on a solid foundation of prerequisite programs to control basic operational and sanitation conditions, the following seven basic principles are used to accomplish this objective:
    Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis
    Principle 2: Determine the critical control points (CCPs)
    Principle 3: Establish critical limits
    Principle 4: Establish monitoring procedures
    Principle 5: Establish corrective actions
    Principle 6: Establish verification procedures
    Principle 7: Establish record-keeping and documentation procedures.
The details of each principle are too extensive for this introduction. You can read the FDA's guidelines in Introduction to HACCP, Annex 4 from FDA 2009 Food Code.

The Process Approach - A Practical Application of HACCP at Retail to Achieve Active Managerial Control
FDA recognizes that there are important differences between using HACCP principles in a food safety management system developed for food manufacturing plants and applying these same principles in food safety management system developed for use in retail and food service establishments.
Since the 1980's, operators and regulators have been exploring the use of the HACCP principles in restaurants, grocery stores, institutional care facilities, and other retail food establishments. During this time, much has been learned about how these principles can be used in these varied operations, collectively referred to as retail food establishments. Most of this exploration has centered around the focal question of how to stay true to the NACMCF definitions of HACCP and still make the principles useful to an industry that encompasses the broadest range of conditions.
Unlike industries such as canning, other food processing, and dairy plants, the retail industry is not easily defined by specific commodities or conditions. Consider the following characteristics that retail food establishments share that set them apart from most food processors:

1. Employee and management turnover is exceptionally high in food establishments, especially for entry level positions. This means the many employees or managers have little experience and food safety training must be continuously provided.
2. Many establishments are start-up businesses operating without benefit of a large corporate support structure and having a relatively low profit margin and perhaps less capital to work with than other segments of the food industry.
3. There is an almost endless number of production techniques, products, menu items, and ingredients used which are not easily adapted to a simple, standardized approach. Changes occur frequently and little preparation time is available.

FDA fully recognizes the diversity of retail and food service establishments and their varying in-house resources to implement HACCP. That recognition is combined with an understanding that the success of such implementation is dependent upon establishing realistic and useful food safety strategies that are customized to the operation.
The process approach can best be described as dividing the many food flows in an establishment into broad categories based on activities or stages in the preparation of the food, then analyzing the hazards, and placing managerial controls on each grouping. These processes and more from the FDA's guidelines regarding the Process Approach can be read on the fda.gov site.

Additional manuals and resources that are available to help educate you about HACCP:
FDA, in partnership with Federal, State, and local regulators, industry, academia, and consumers, has written a guidance document entitled, "Managing Food Safety: A Manual for the Voluntary Use of HACCP Principles for Operators of Food Service and Retail Establishments." Commonly referred to as the "Operator's Manual," this document is designed to assist operators with developing or enhancing food safety management systems based on the process approach to HACCP. The manual presents a step-by-step procedure for writing and voluntarily implementing a food safety management system based on the principles of HACCP. The desired outcome is an operator who employs a preventive rather than a reactive strategy to food safety.
The Operator's Manual embodies FDA's current thinking on the application of HACCP principles at retail. It advocates the voluntary use of HACCP principles using the process approach as a practical and effective means of reducing the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors leading to out-of-control hazards. The Operator's Manual is strictly for the voluntary implementation of HACCP principles at retail and should not be used to develop HACCP plans that are required through Federal, State, or local regulations, ordinances, or laws.
FDA has also written a document for regulators of retail and food service establishments entitled, "Managing Food Safety: A Regulator's Manual for Applying HACCP Principles to Risk-Based Retail and Food Service Inspections and Evaluating Voluntary Food Safety Management Systems." Commonly referred to as the "Regulator's Manual," this document was written to provide a risk-based inspectional "roadmap" for evaluating the degree of active managerial control an operator has over foodborne illness risk factors.

Summary:
In order to make a positive impact on foodborne illness, retail and food service operators must achieve active managerial control of the risk factors contributing to foodborne illness. Combined with basic sanitation, employee training, and other prerequisite programs, the principles of HACCP provide an effective system for achieving this objective. The goal in applying HACCP principles in retail and food service is to have the operator take purposeful actions to ensure safe food. The process approach simplifies HACCP principles for use in retail and food service. This practical and effective method of hazard control embodies the concept of active managerial control by providing an on-going system of simple control measures that will reduce the occurrence of risk factors that lead to out-of-control hazards.

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