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risk insurance health & safety program food safety plan - HAACP

Risk Management & Safety Plans

Risk

Risk is the possibility of harm, injury, loss, danger, or destruction. Risk can be managed by establishing a risk management strategy, which includes these steps:

1. Identify the risks to which you are exposed.
2. Assess each risk in terms of the severity of the potential loss and your ability to handle that loss.
3. Identify appropriate risk strategies: avoidance, reduction, sharing or transfer, and retention.
4. Implement your risk management strategy by taking action, i.e., purchasing insurance or eliminating hazards or buying a smoke alarm, etc
5. Review and update your risk management strategy on a regular basis.

Insurance

Liability insurance: offers financial protection against legal action by a customer who consumed your product. If someone complains about your product or legal action is brought against your business, phone your insurance broker immediately. Even if a lawsuit against your business is not successful, you may still have huge legal fees that liability insurance can cover.

Cross liability: results when you put your product in someone else's premises, or when you use someone else's kitchen or facility. You may be required to carry liability insurance before a retailer will sell your product. Commercial kitchens will likely have liability insurance of some kind.

Business interruption insurance: protects a business owner against the loss of revenues he/she would suffer due to an insured cause, for example, a fire.

Special event policies: are held by a master subscriber, such as a festival or market. The master subscriber buys the liability insurance, and vendors pay a fee to sign on as part of the subscription.

Indemnity clauses: such as a waiver form, do not protect a business from being sued. A person cannot have his/her right to sue taken away.

Assess your risks and determine how great they are. Look into specific coverage. For example, you can buy insurance for lost product, loss of a supplier or market protection.

Health and Safety Program

When your business is up and running you will want to ensure you are complying with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, which set out minimum workplace standards for health and safety. Be sure to contact your local Workers' Compensation Board to ensure workplace health and safety in your small-scale food processing business.

Food Safety Plan - HACCP

A food safety plan aids in managing or controlling risk. HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) is a process that you can follow to develop your food safety plan. The seven basic steps to develop your food safety plan are:

1. Find the food safety hazards - determine where significant hazards can occur.
2. Identify the Critical Control Points in the process.
3. Set critical limits or procedures to control the hazards.
4. Check the critical limits - establish procedures for using the results of monitoring to adjust the process and maintain control.
5. Establish corrective actions to handle control problems.
6. Keep accurate records and review them regularly to ensure the controls are working.
7. Check your Food Safety Plan to make sure it's working.