M. Ebrahimi Fakhar

Food and Drug Deputy, Ministry of Health

Based on the 1967 Food Safety Law, each food factory must be approved by the Food Safety Department as to good manufacturing practices (GMPs), good laboratory practices, and generalized system of preferences. Each food factory must employ a food technologist (at the B.S.-degree level or higher) approved by the Food Safety Department. This individual is responsible for quality control in the factory at three levels: quality control of raw materials, quality control of processing, and quality control of the finished product. The food technologist must send monthly reports to the Food Safety Department. In addition, the Food Safety staffs in the provinces periodically inspect food factories and check them by testing random samples. At the distribution level there is a post-marketing surveillance system in order to control finished products in the market. Recently, the Food Safety Department has encouraged food factories to establish Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems and this will become obligatory in the near future.

The supervisory administration for food, drink, cosmetics, and sanitary stuffs started teaching HACCP in 1994, in keeping with World Health Organization (WHO) aims. It has promoted and encouraged the development and use of HACCP systems. In recent years many workshops and seminars on GMPs and HACCP systems have been organized by the above-mentioned administration or by medical science universities. WHO tutors and consultants have served as tutors and lecturers.

The first food safety meeting and related workshops were held in August 1996. The participants were managers and experts of the Supervisory Administration of Food and Sanitary Stuffs from Iran’s medical science universities. The second meeting was held in November 1996; it was sponsored by Tabriz Univer-

sity of Medical Sciences in East Azerbaijan province and lasted for three days. Subsequently, many HACCP workshops were held in 1997 in Bushehr, Fars, Isfahan, Khorasan, Tehran, and Azerbaijan. The supervisory administrations have translated and published papers on hazards and critical control points and, in this respect, the Institute of Standard and Industrial Research of Iran can be said to have published standards of practice (SOPs).

To coordinate all food safety programs in different organizations, the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health established a committee in March 1999 to help plan and harmonize HACCP systems. This committee consists of experts from different responsible organizations and ministries. It meets under the auspices of the Supervisory Administration of Food, Cosmetics, and Sanitary Products. Other organizations from the veterinary and fishery sectors have performed similar work adapting HACCP systems to veterinary and fishery products.

This committee started work on food safety through the use of HACCP and tried to replace old control methods with HACCP systems. Exclusive use of HACCP is now mandatory for potentially hazardous products such as dairy and meat.

Since 2000 the committee has performed the following main actions:

1. Established committees in provincial universities of medical science for improving HACCP systems;

2. Published various educational pamphlets and sent them to where-ever needed (including provincial committees). These pamphlets include the following:

• A general guide on HACCP in food industries;

• National Standard No. 4557. SOPs for hazard analysis and critical control points;

• National Standard No. 1836. SOPs for the main sanitary principles in food production units;

• A guide to HACCP system validation;

• Elementary programs and a revised work sheet for HACCP systems;

• A hazard analysis and critical control points book; and

• A checklist of differentiation patterns for HACCP systems based on conventional international methods.

3. Provided a list of the expert consultants and user information at various levels;

4. Trained the nuclear group of the committee;

5. Held workshops for related experts in collaboration with corporate teaching centers, university scientists, and committee teachers;

6. Held a three-day workshop in 2002 on GMP principles taught by WHO consultants;

7. Established a Web site hosted by the Food and Drug Office’s Web site;

8. Developed an HACCP system data bank for users worldwide;

9. Identified HACCP rules, proposals for each foodstuff, and how to determine and validate hazards in food industry systems;

10. Established SOPs for using an HACCP system on pistachios; participated in national Codex Alimentarius committees; developed a proposal for control and screening of pistachio contamination;

11. Established an HACCP SOP system for raisins;

12. Collaborated with the Iran Accreditation System;

13. Prepared a data bank for producer units that could obtain HACCP certificates;

14. Validated HACCP systems in production units and issued the permit for using HACCP certificates on labels or in advertisements;

15. Prepared a checklist for validation of dairy production for GMPs and HACCP; and

16. Established HACCP system certification requirements for the import of processed materials, such as dried milk.

Activities of the National Committee for Coordinating and Planning HACCP Implementation, 2000-2004:

The government of Iran continues to be committed to establishing and implementing appropriate food safety measures, including HACCP systems for various food products. It is hoped that these measures will improve food safety throughout Iran.