A hazard analysis consists of identifying potential hazards and evaluating these hazards to determine which are significant for the specific food and food business operation. Hazards that must be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels to produce safe food should be identified and appropriately controlled. In some cases, specific hazards can be controlled by applying good hygiene practices and programmes. In other instances, control measures will need to be applied within the production or processing process, e.g. at Critical Control Points (CCP).

There are various sources of information available to help identify hazards in foods and to explain the hazard analysis for a particular food or process, including commodity-hazard-specific risk assessments and generic HACCP plans.

Consult the guidance document on conducting a hazard analysis to:

• identify all the potential hazards in a process that may reasonably be expected at each step in the process;
• conduct a hazard analysis for each product or process type that takes into consideration the likelihood of a hazard occurring and the severity of the consequences if it does occur; and
• evaluate the control measures that can be used to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level.  

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