Practical application of predictive microbiology software programs to HACCP plans.

We studied how predictive microbiology models could practically be applied to HACCP plans with two predictive software programs that are currently available. The software programs were the Food Micromodel elaborated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, U.K. and the Pathogen Modeling Program of Eastern Regional Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture. They successfully provided useful information on (i) the determination of Critical Control Points (CCPs), (ii) the estimation of critical limits at CCPs, (iii) the decision of abused products, (iv) the assessment of equivalence of HACCP plans, and further (v) the development of new products. With the information simulated by the software programs, HACCP teams could make scientific and objective decisions for developing their individual plans. It was also confirmed that microbiological process standards for food processing are indispensable for the application of the predictive programs to HACCP plans.