What are critical limits in HACCP?

• A. Specific criteria that must be met at a CCP (e.g., minimum cooking temperature, max time, pH, water activity) to ensure safety
• B. The maximum number of product lots per day
• C. The budget limit for a CCP
• D. The color of packaging required at CCP

Answer: (A)

Critical limits are the specific, measurable criteria at a critical control point that must be met to ensure a food safety hazard is controlled. They come from scientific data and regulatory requirements and are things you can monitor and verify. For example, a cooking step might require a minimum internal temperature and a maximum time to ensure pathogens are destroyed; a cooling step might set a maximum time to drop from a high temperature to a safe level; or a process might specify target pH or water activity to prevent microbial growth. During production, you monitor these values; staying within the limit means the process is in control. If a limit is not met, you take corrective actions to bring the step back into compliance before the product is released. The other options describe production capacity, budget, or packaging color, which are not safety criteria used to control a CCP.