February 05, 2025

Top Tips for Better Process Validation

In this column, the author describes why the validation step of HACCP for food safety preventive controls is key to addressing processing hazards and identifies processes and preventive controls that are required to be validated.

Richard Stier

Food Technology Magazine

Preventive Control Validation

Understand why validation of food safety preventive controls is key to addressing processing hazards.
Validation Requirements

Gain insight into processes and preventive controls that are required to be validated.
Validation Improvement

Learn tips for enhancing validation measures following risk assessment.

Back in 1994, Russell Cross, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) who helped shepherd the nation’s “War on Pathogens” plan in response to the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, recommended that all federally inspected meat and poultry plants be required to implement Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). “We believe that the HACCP system, coupled with strong risk assessment programs is the food safety system of the future … and the future is now,” Cross stated.

Thirty years later, that sentiment remains as true as the day …

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Authors

Richard Stier Food Scientist

Richard F. Stier is a consulting food scientist with international experience in food safety (HACCP), food plant sanitation, quality systems, process optimization, GMP compliance, and food microbiology (rickstier4@aol.com).