Pre-HACCP as a Management Development Tool Toward Achieving Food Safety Standard: Thailand's Experience

摘要

Thailand is a major food producer in the ASEAN region and the world. To remain competitive in global processed food exportation, Thai food factories must monitor every step of production to control and guarantee superior product quality in terms of both safety and nutrition. Recognizing that over 95 % of the country's food producers are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Kasetsart University, which specializes in Agriculture and Food, jointly with the National Food Institute, has developed a comprehensive management development model to encourage Food SMEs to work toward achieving Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification. This is known as the Pre-HACCP Model~R. This food safety management development model was designed and developed based on KU's food industry research, technical service and commercialized food product under the Kit? brand, as well as over 40 years of experience working with both informalffjfuland formal SMEs.To consolidate the human resources of over 200 food-related experts, more than 55 laboratories and six pilot plant facilities at four campuses throughout the country, Kasetsart University established a management network and virtual organization called KU Food Innovation Research and Services in Thailand (KU-FIRST). Key activities of the Pre-HACCP Model~R include (1) Creating a step-wise training program, comprising Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP) and achieving Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), (2) Developing a country-wide network of food safety advisors, (3) Voluntary food SMEs subscription membership in the program, (4) Comprehensive training complete with food group-specific trainingmanuals, (5) Adoption of food safety standard practices by food SMEs through periodic consultations with advisors and (6) Evaluation of production and management practices for Pre-HACCP certification.As Thailand prepares to become a member of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in the year 2015, KU-FIRST is extending its Pre-HACCP Program by forming the Thailand University Network - UFIRSTNet - to reach out to food SMEs nationwide. Moreover, KasetsartUniversity's Food Quality Assurance (FQA) laboratory has been, and will continue to serve as, a reference laboratory for food quality evaluation.Realizing that the future globalization of food trading will require innovation to deal with more complex constraints, including the sources and quality of raw materials, carbon footprints, etc., it is necessary to further strengthen the capacity of foodSMEs. As a result, it is deemed appropriate to further develop the training program accordingly.Among the several strategies to be further developed, Kasetsart University is creating a new training program to produce professional Food Safety Counselors? for the AEC, to be launched in 2014. In addition to the various up-to-date technical subjects tobe covered including food mile, emphasis will be given to ethics and codes of conduct.