An operation is establishing a HACCP plan. To ensure if its effectiveness, the manager has decided to cook every chicken breast to a minimum internal temperature of 170°F (77°C) for 15 seconds. This is an example of

• A. Establishing critical limits
• B. Preventive controls
• C. Corrective action
• D. HACCP plan

Answer: (A)

Setting a minimum internal temperature and time for cooking is about defining a critical limit. In HACCP, a critical limit is the specific, measurable criterion that must be met at a critical control point to ensure a hazard is controlled. Here, requiring chicken to reach 170°F (77°C) for 15 seconds creates a boundary that, when met, demonstrates the cooking step is effectively reducing the microbial risk to an acceptable level. If the limit isn’t met, the operation would trigger corrective actions to bring the process back under control.

This isn’t describing a general preventive measure or the entire HACCP plan. Preventive controls cover broad measures to prevent hazards (like equipment maintenance or staff training), and the HACCP plan is the overall system. It also isn’t the action taken after a problem occurs; corrective action would outline what to do if the limit isn’t met. The key point is that the temperature-time combination is the specific numeric criterion used to control the hazard at the cooking step.