Minutes of HACCP Steering Committee Meeting January 2003

DATE: 9th January 2003

TIME: 11.00am

LOCATION: Boardroom

ATTENDEES: 
Dr Lisa O'Connor, Senior Executive Industrial Liaison, FSAI (CHAIR) (LO'C)
Dr Wayne Anderson, FSAI (WA)
Dorothy Guina-Dornan, FSAI (DG-D)
Anne-Marie Kierans, FSAI (A-MK)
Jeff Moon, FSAI (JIM)
Noel Donnelly, NAHB (ND)
Mari Greene, MHB (MG)
Rita O'Grady, NWHB (RO'G)
Gwen Neary, ECAHB (GN)
Sean O'Connor ECAHB (SO'C)
John Hanily, WHB (JH)
Ray Parle, SEHB (RP)
Al Donnelly, NEHB (AD)
Richard Fitzgerald, MWHB (RF)
John Moynihan, SHB (JM)

SECRETARY 
Ms Alison Bradshaw, FSAI (AB)

APOLOGIES: 
Anne-Marie Part, SWAHB (A-MP)

AGENDA ITEMS

1.  Minutes and Matters Arising

The minutes of the last meeting were approved without any changes being made.

Noted: There was some discussion on the standard letters circulated and their effectiveness.

Noted: GN expressed concerns raised by EHO's in the ECAHB. GN advised the ECAHB have already sent letters to premises and are concerned the standard letter conveys an 18 month 'grace period' for nursing homes, which has the potential to undermine progress made by the ECAHB to date.

Noted: The letters were produced as a template only. Health Board discretion is to be used when amending and sending out the letters. These letters may be adapted to each local Health Board initiative.

Noted: RP advised he had received a letter from Seamus Moore (copy on file) regarding whether the National Strategy includes residential care homes.

Noted: The National Strategy while covering both public and private hospitals and nursing homes, it does not include residential care homes.

Noted: Received information from RP regarding the numbers of hotels, nursing homes and hospitals in the SEHB. 

2. Compliance Targets 2003 - assessment form and process

The assessment document was circulated and some minor changes were agreed. There was some discussion on how the process should be carried out and the following was agreed:

Agreed: AB to circulate the updated assessment form by e-mail, before Friday, 10 th January 2003 .

Agreed Process:

•  The aim is to achieve baseline data for as many of the target premises as is possible.

•  EHOs will use existing files to complete the assessment form where they feel the files are sufficiently up to date.

•  For files which are considered out of date, EHO should where feasible visit these premises.

•  This process should be completed by the end of January.

•  It is acknowledged that this approach may not allow full coverage of all the target premises.

Agreed Method for Collation of data:

•  FSAI will draft a returns form for the aggregate results from each Health Board

•  Steering Committee Members will send completed returns sheet to FSAI by end February  

3. HACCP Documents

• i. HACCP Terminology

This DRAFT document incorporating amendments previously suggested by the committee was tabled. The committee was requested to forward it for wider comment to their colleagues before final sign-off.

Agreed: AB to circulate the document to Members.

Agreed: The deadline for comments is the 31 st January 2003 .

Agreed: All comments to be sent to AB.

• ii. HACCP in Catering

This first rough draft of a booklet on HACCP for caterers was tabled. LO'C asked the committee to consider the following specific points when reviewing the document:

Annex 1 Should the flow diagram be simplified?

Annex 2 How do we deal with prerequisites as controls?

Annex 2 Should there be a suggested control for each hazard or each stage?

Agreed: AB to send the document to Members.

Agreed: Members to send comments to AB via e-mail before 17 th January 2003 .

4. FSAI Update

LO'C briefed the committee on the Noordwijk Food Safety HACCP Forum recently attended by the FSAI, notably:

•  WA gave a presentation at the Forum entitled 'How should consumers participate in decision making'

•  The Forum was mainly attended by the Manufacturing Industry.

•  ISO Draft Standard on HACCP will be ready for final comment in 2004 and published in 2005. WA noted that once an international standard is published the Irish national standard will have to be revoked.

5. Health Board Updates

There were no updates from the Health Boards  

6. AOB

• i. Know your supplier document

This DRAFT document was circulated to the committee for comment.

Agreed: Members to send comments via e-mail before 16 th January 2003.

• ii. Cook-Chill Documents

LO'C advised the FSAI have drafted 2 documents on cook-chill, 1 for Caterers and 1 for Manufacturers. The catering document will be initially worked through the Catering Forum and the manufacturing document through this committee.

Agreed: LO'C will circulate to the Committee at a later date for comments.

Noted: LO'C reiterated that under the Terms of Reference of the National HACCP Steering Committee, the Committee will act as a technical working group for standard documents and it was a matter for each member to decide how widely they wished to circulate early draft documents.

Noted: RP and AD will disseminate documents to colleagues for comment where they deem it is appropriate.

• iii. Enforcement Notices

RO'G asked whether there was a provision for enforcement notices issued by the Department of Agriculture and Food to be published.

Agreed: DG-D will follow up.  

• iv. Hotels Federation

LO'C advised the Hotels Federation had sent a letter to all their members advising them of the National Strategy.

• v. HACCP National Strategy - Advertising Campaign

AD requested an update on the advertising campaign to date.

Noted: WA advised he has started discussions with the FSAI Communications Division

Agreed: WA and LO'C to discuss the advertising campaign and inform the committee.

• vi. HACCP

JM enquired about HACCP in other areas i.e. agriculture and marine. WA explained that in some cases HACCP is already in the legislation and that FSAI had been working with Department of Agriculture and Food and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources e.g. Guidance Note No. 8 'The Implementation of Food Safety Management Systems in Beef and Lamb Slaughter Plants based on HACCP Principles'.

It was agreed that the National HACCP Steering Committee will continue to meet on the 2 nd Thursday of every 2nd month.

The date for the next meeting is the 13th March 2003

 

 

Last reviewed: 11/5/2011