Food Control 17 (2006) 599603

www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont

Costs and investments of implementing and maintaining HACCP

in a pasteurized milk plant
Consuelo Domenici Roberto, Sebastiao Cesar Cardoso Brandao *,
Carlos Arthur Barbosa da Silva
Food Technology Department, Federal University of Vicosa, 36 570-000 Vicosa, MG, Brazil
Received 18 August 2003; received in revised form 20 May 2004; accepted 24 May 2004

Abstract
Results of an economic study associated with the implementation and maintenance of HACCP in a pasteurized milk plant are
presented. The GMP/SSOP pre-requisites were evaluated in the plant. Two HACCP plans were proposed: a rst plan was developed
under the actual operating conditions, without previous compliance of GMP/SSOP pre-requisites, and a second plan was developed
considering compliance of GMP/SSOP. The cost estimation for implementation and maintenance of HACCP, with or without previous adoption of the pre-requisite programs, was performed and a comparative analysis of the estimated values was carried out.
The results suggest that a previous compliance of GMP/SSOP pre-requisites is essential for developing an eective HACCP plan
with a small number of critical control points, leading to lower costs and investments for implementation and maintenance of
HACCP.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: HACCP; Pre-requisites programs; Cost

1. Introduction
The application of the hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) system to food processing
clearly results in benets to industry, government
and consumers, besides promoting a potential improvement of food safety and prevention of foodborne
diseases.
The most eective way to achieve food safety is to
focus on prevention of possible hazards and to improve
the process (Swanson & Anderson, 2000). The HACCP
system has been indicated as one of the most eective
ways to guarantee high quality and safe food, from a

Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 31 38991852; fax: +55 31

38992208.
E-mail address: sbrandao@ufv.br (S.C.C. Brandao).
0956-7135/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2004.05.011

human health point of view. However, its success and

eectiveness in preventing foodborne diseases and risks
to consumer health depend on the correct application
of its principles, combined with other programs, which
include safety infrastructure and the programs Good
manufacturing practice and Sanitation standard operational procedures (GMP/SSOP).
In developing countries, the implementation and
maintenance of HACCP in many dairy industries are
complex, mainly due to the technological level of individual plants. What has been observed is the development of expensive, complex and extensive HACCP
plans, especially because the relevance of pre-requisite
programs is not considered.
Being a dynamic system of quality guaranty, the
HACCP system demands a high initial outlay of
nancial resources. The initial implementation of this
system requires additional resources for sta training,

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C.D. Roberto et al. / Food Control 17 (2006) 599603

equipment and extra supplies purchase, as well as technical support. In the long term, the return of the investment is veried by the reduction of contaminated food,
improvement on quality and safety of the food, increase
in reliability and fewer complaints from consumers
(Motarjemi & Kaferstein, 1999).
If correctly developed, the pre-requisite programs can
provide good control for the basic principles of food
handling and can also be used to support implementation of an HACCP plan. As a result, the plan becomes
more ecient, easier to manage and less expensive
(Wallace & Williams, 2001).
The aim of this study was to provide guidelines
for implementation and maintenance of the HACCP
system in an existing dairy plant, based on a prerequisite program in order to minimize implementation
costs.

critical, and not acceptable, according to the criteria

adopted by IDFA (1996).

2. Methodology

Cost estimation was quantied in Brazilian Reals

(R$) for a period of 2 years (1US$ = 3R$). Cost estimates included items necessary to guarantee product
safety and those items related to each critical control
point (CCP).

This study was performed in a dairy plant in Vicosa,

Minas Gerais State, Brazil, which supplies retail at a
microregional level. The dairy plant receives around
10,000 l of bulk milk per day, has 35 employees and processes vitamin A and D pasteurized milk, yogurt, cream
cheese, and butter. It has its own analytical laboratory
in which physical-chemistry and microbiological analyses of raw milk, ingredients, underprocessed and nished products are performed.
The HACCP program described here is concerned
with the manufacture of homogenized pasteurized
milk, supplemented with vitamins A and D. Seven
employees are directly involved in manufacturing this
product on a 4500 l daily basis. Data were collected
during 3 months and monitoring of the process was
conducted starting with milking at the farm and including raw milk reception until despatch of nished product, including all sanitation procedures. Further
information was obtained from laboratory analyses
records and also from data provided by factory management and sta.
2.1. Evaluation of the processing practices of the plant
The evaluation of the GMP program was based on
criteria adopted by IDFA (1996) to diagnose actual conditions of the industry process. At this level, sanitation
programs, building and installation of the plant, execution and frequency of employee training, equipments
and utensils, cleaning supplies, storage areas, ingredients, storage and dispatch of the nished product, pest
control program, and water quality were evaluated.
These items were classied as not applicable, acceptable,

2.2. Development of the HACCP plans

To evaluate the importance of the pre-requisite programs for implementing HACCP, two plans were proposed, based on a study of Dijkers, Huurnink,
Pennings, and Van den Berg (1995) and on IDFA
(1996). The rst was an HACCP plan for actual processing conditions of the plant, without previous compliance
of local industry to the GMP/SSOP pre-requisites. The
second was an HACCP plan that considers compliance
of plant to the GMP/SSOP pre-requisites, including
the proposed changes necessary for compliance.
2.3. Costs and investments of implementation and
maintenance of HACCP in milk pasteurization process

2.3.1. Hiring employees for monitoring and maintenance

of the CCP records
These costs were based on the salary paid to an
employee directly involved in the manufacturing process.
2.3.2. Initial and periodical training of employees involved
in the HACCP team
For initial training, a total period of 24 h was considered and multiplied by the hourly wage paid to an
HACCP professional. For periodical training (every 6
months), the considered periods were 16 h for the
HACCP plan without previous compliance of GMP/
SSOP pre-requisites and 8 h for the HACCP plan complying to GMP/SSOP.
2.3.3. Expenditures with equipment purchasing, cleaning
supplies and laboratory analysis
These items varied according to the HACCP plan.
Their values were estimated either from data obtained
at the plant or from suppliers of those products.
2.3.4. Hiring of a consultant to develop the plan
To calculate these costs, estimated time was multiplied by the value charged per hour by this class of
professionals.
2.3.5. Hiring of a GMP/SSOP
Cost estimates were made for 5S training, for hiring
and maintaining of an employee to perform activities

C.D. Roberto et al. / Food Control 17 (2006) 599603

related to GMP/SSOP pre-requisites and for structural

changes at the plant.
To rationalize the costs for implementation and
maintenance of HACCP in the pasteurized milk process
costs were evaluated in R$, and a comparative analysis for the two plans was conducted. The analysis
for implementation and maintenance of the proposed
plans was based on the studies of Buchweitz and Salay
(2001), Crutcheld, Buzby, Roberts, and Ollinger
(2000), Gall (2000) and Henson, Holt, and Northen
(1999).

3. Results
3.1. Evaluation of the GMP/SSOP
Results indicated that the plant had not implemented
the GMP/SSOP pre-requisites. Verbal communications
prevailed among employees and managers. A lack of
written documentations for sanitation procedures made
it dicult to establish standard operational procedures.
The inexistence of a GMP training program was hindering the performance and employee awareness of their
functions and responsibilities in the whole process.
The results also indicated a need for structural
changes in the processing plant, specically for garbage
storage area, oors, graters, windows, disinfectants storage area and security system for lamps located in the
pasteurization area.
3.2. Development of the HACCP plan
An excessive number of CCPs was found for the
HACCP plan without previous compliance of GMP/
SSOP pre-requisites (Table 1). The process stage from
steps 3 to 8 identied as CCP for this case may be considered as part of the GMP/SSOP pre-requisites that
should be implemented in the dairy plant before developing the HACCP plan. This implementation would

601

reduce the CCP number to 2 and thereby become the

simplest and most eective HACCP plan. In this case,
the GMP/SSOP pre-requisites ensured favorable
conditions for safe product manufacture when stages
such as addition of vitamins, packaging, distribution,
pest control, sanitation procedures and storage of
pasteurized milk in a cold room were not considered
as CCP.
3.3. Economic evaluation of the HACCP plan
Cost estimation associated with the implementation
and maintenance of the developed HACCP plans are
presented in Table 2. A higher initial cost in the rst four
months of implementation of the HACCP plan with
adequation to the GMP/SSOP was observed (Fig. 1).
These costs mainly resulted from expenditures to adjust
the plant to the pre-requisite programs. A reduction in
costs to implement the HACCP plan is observed from
the fourth month on, when cumulative costs diminished
for implementation of the HACCP plan at the current
processing conditions.
To calculate implementation and maintenance
expenses for the plan with two CCP, costs for the
GMP/SSOP program were taken into account in addition to costs for the HACCP plan itself. For the plan
with eight CCP, the costs are related only to implementation and maintenance of the HACCP plan itself. For
the plan that considered compliance of the dairy plant
to the pre-requisite program, 70.6% is related to the
costs for introduction of the GMP/SSOP, and only
29.4% corresponds to the costs for implementation itself
in the rst year.
The HACCP plan is specic for each process, and it
depends upon specic local conditions. Some of the
costs for, among others, purchasing equipment and
structural changes within the processing plant will also
depend on plant conditions. However, other costs
will vary with the CCP number. These include the number of employees conducting activities such as plan

Table 1
CCP for the HACCP plan without compliance of GMP/SSOP and after the compliance to GMP/SSOP
Process stages

HACCP plan without compliance

of GMP/SSOP
Type of risk

HACCP plan complying

to GMP/SSOP
Type of risk

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

CCP
CCP
CCP
CCP
CCP
CCP
CCP
CCP

CCP 1/C
CCP 2/M

Storage tank for standardized raw milk

Pasteurization
Addition of vitamins A and D to standardized raw milk
Packaging
Storage of cold pasteurized milk
Distribution of end-product
Sanitation procedures
Pest control

C: chemical hazard; P: physical hazard; M: microbiological hazard.

1/C
2/M
3/C
4/M, P
5/M
6/M
7/C, M
8/M, P

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C.D. Roberto et al. / Food Control 17 (2006) 599603

Table 2
Cost estimates associated with implementation and maintenance of HACCP plans without compliance of GMP/SSOP and after the compliance to
GMP/SSOP for rst and second years
Process stages

Pest control

Sanitation

Packaging

Items

HACCP plan HACCP plan

without compliance of GMP/SSOP

HACCP plan complying to GMP/

SSOP

First year (R$)a

Second year (R$)a

First year (R$)a

Second year (R$)a

Consulting
Specialist service contractor
Equipment purchase
Employee for monitoring

2000
16,500
160
12,000

18,000

13,000

2000
16,500
160

18,000

Subtotal

30,660

31,000

18,660

18,000

Cleaning supplies
Kits for monitoring analysis
Equipment purchase
Employee for monitoring

40,147
8910
7000
12,000

40,147
8910

13,000

40,723
1710

40,723
1710

Subtotal

68,057

62,057

42,433

42,433

Equipment purchase
Employee for monitoring

685
4800

Subtotal

5485

5200

Employee for monitoring

4800

5200

Subtotal

4800

5200

Addition of vitamins

Employee for monitoring

4800

5200

Subtotal
Kits for monitoring analysis
Employee for monitoring

4800
7841
4800

5200
7841
5200

Antibiotics

12,641

13,041

Employee for monitoring

4800

5200

Subtotal

4800

5200

Kits for monitoring analysis

Equipment purchase
Employee for monitoring

2240
10,535
24,000

2240

26,000

2240
10,535
6000

Subtotal

36,775

28,240

18,775

Storage of cold milk

Subtotal
Distribution

Pasteurization

HACCP plan

GMP/SSOP pre-requisites

Consulting
Initial training
Periodical training

6000
2400
1120

Subtotal

9520

5200

685

685

7841
6000

7841
6500

13,841

14,341

1120

4000
2400
560

1120

6960

2240

6500
8740

560
560

Consulting
Structural changes
at processing plant
Training
Employee for activities
related to GMP/SSOP

4000
15,729

1600
12,000

13,000

Subtotal

33,329

13,000

Total

177,538

156,258

134,683

97,074

1US$ = 3R$.

development, training, recording and monitoring. Thus,

large CCP numbers result in higher costs, irregardless of

either the plant or the conditions present when developing an HACCP plan or both.

C.D. Roberto et al. / Food Control 17 (2006) 599603

603

200.000
180.000
160.000
140.000
HACCP plan without
compliance of GMP/SSOP
HACCP plan with compliance
to GMP/SSOP

R$

120.000
100.000
80.000
60.000
40.000
20.000
0
1

10 11 12

Month
Fig. 1. Estimation of cumulative costs for rst year HACCP plan implementation.

4. Conclusions
The identied CCP numbers directly interfere with
resources necessary to implement, develop and maintain
an HACCP plan. Reduction of the identied CCP number caused a decrease in cumulative cost after the fourth
month. Thus, the estimated costs for the implementation
and maintenance of HACCP plan considering the previous compliance of industry to the pre-requisites were
lower than those spent with the HACCP plan without
compliance of the GMP/SSOP pre-requisites. This fact
emphasizes the importance of a solid pre-requisite program to improve economic viability for HACCP
implementation.
For the HACCP plan with eight CCP, the implementation costs for the rst year were R$177,538. With the
compliance of the pre-requisite programs (GMP/SSOP)
it was possible to reduce these costs approximately by
24.2%.

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