7. Step 7: Identify CCPs (Critical Control Points)

Clearly, this is another key step, and for some, the very existence of an HACCP plan depends on the absence of "real" CCPs! This vision is a little extreme and rigid, forgetting the very essence of the HACCP approach, which is, for the company, to bring the issue of food safety into the virtuous circle of continuous improvement. This is expressed by Codex, which, in its wisdom and in the 1999 revision of its founding text, reiterates the need for flexibility in its application and in the use of CCP identification flowcharts. This flexibility must not, however, exclude a certain rigor in the definition of CCPs.