Published 15 Aug 2023
What is TACCP?
TACCP (Threat Assessment Critical Control Points) is a management process that aims to protect food products from deliberate contamination that is intended to cause harm. Also called food defense, TACCP helps proactively identify and manage control points in the supply chain that can be at risk of intentional contamination.
In this article
- What does it protect against?
- Difference between HACCP, VACCP, and TACCP
- How to Implement it
- TACCP Risk Assessment Example
- Using an Assessment Tool
- Download and Use Free TACCP Templates
What does it protect against?
In the context of TACCP, threats are acts that can harm consumers or businesses through the contamination of food products. Some examples for TACCP include exposing food production to allergens such as peanuts, contaminating produce with needles or other physical contaminants, or causing a salmonella outbreak via contaminated self-service food. Such malicious acts can be costly for businesses and can be very harmful to consumers if not addressed immediately.
Difference between HACCP, VACCP, and TACCP
HACCP
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point is designed to identify and mitigate hazards during food production and ensure that food product is safe for consumption.
VACCP
Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point helps identify and control vulnerabilities in the food supply chain that can be exposed to (economically motivated) food fraud.
TACCP
It aims to protect food products from deliberate contamination with the intention to cause harm (behaviorally or ideologically motivated). TACCP builds upon existing processes of HACCP in ensuring the safety of food products
Difference between HACCP, VACCP, and TACCP
How to Implement it
Businesses can properly mitigate risks by proactively anticipating threats and knowing which points in the food supply chain are at risk of deliberate contamination. To implement TACCP, businesses should:
- Create a multi-disciplinary team with members from HR, procurement, security, etc., who can contribute in developing a TACCP plan.
- Identify points in the food supply chain where threats are possible against staff, operations, and products.
- Conduct assessments of the critical points to identify risks.
- Analyze the risks and put in place appropriate threat controls and continue to monitor the control points.
- Create action plans in anticipation of possible breach of controls.
- Train employees and continue to improve the TACCP process by reviewing documentation and anticipating new threats.
TACCP Risk Assessment Example
Check this sample PDF report to see what information can be included in a TACCP risk assessment.
Using an Assessment Tool
Maintaining an effective TACCP system requires continuous documentation and active tracking of critical points to watch out for threats. There’s also a need to be aware of new threats that may impact the business.
Dependence on paper records and manual documentation, however, can hinder the effective implementation of TACCP. Spending too much time manually recording data and reviewing paperwork is counterproductive to building an effective food defense.
SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) can assist in implementing a paperless and effective TACCP process that allows you to immediately work on risks and threats found even while conducting assessments. All completed assessment reports are automatically saved online with unlimited cloud storage capacity and access. Easily login to your online dashboard to access and print your reports, view threat trends, photo evidence, and key findings.
To save you time, we have digitized TACCP templates to help you identify threats to food safety. SafetyCulture templates are 100% customizable so you can better fit them to your business needs.
Download and Use Free TACCP Templates
TACCP - Food Manufacturing Audit (GMP)
This food manufacturing audit template follows GMP based on 21 CFR Part 110 and can be used as a guide when conducting food manufacturing audits. Operations Managers can use this as a guide to:
- Ensure that workers are trained on proper sanitary procedures and that equipment and process & controls follow GMP.
- Securely save your completed reports in the cloud and track overall audit score performance
TACCP - General Food Safety Checklist
This food safety checklist can help ensure that food is properly prepared and protected from contamination. Managers can use this as an aid to look for possible risks in food safety. Use this as a guide to:
- Check staff hygienic practices and food preparation.
- Assess the status of the freezer, storage, utensils, equipment, garbage disposal, and pest control.
- Use SafetyCulture to capture photo evidence of health risks and immediately assign corrective actions.
VACCP Template
TACCP and VACCP can be used hand-in-hand with VACCP to promote a strong food defence by going through critical control points that could expose both threats and food fraud vulnerabilities. QA officers can use this to check ingredients or raw materials, product, production line, supplier/s, and nature of business. With other stakeholders to identify risks. Use this checklist as guide for the following:
- Assess the possibility of food fraud.
- Determine which point in the supply chain fraud can be an incentive.
- Check control measures in place against food fraud.
- SafetyCulture templates can be edited according to your business needs - no programming skills needed!
