| Food safety is one of the burning issuesacross the globe.To ensure food safety is attained to its maximum level, various food safety management systems exist. Many countries have even legalized the concept of food safety management systems. The customers are also pressing unaltered attention on food safety and demand from their suppliers to get FSMS certification from a reputed independent certifying body. The certification from an independent organization builds the trust of both customers and consumers that their product is safe for human consumption. For a successful implementation of any FSMS, a strong program has to be designed both for the following two aspects – i) Facility and ii) Process or product. HACCP is a process or product based system that looks after process based hazards. A good HACCP is built on a sound Pre Requisite Program (PRP) which is a facility based system ensuring that the environment and operating conditions are safe for the production and storage of food. Both the programs are inter connected and work together to reduce the risk of food borne illnesses. PRPs are the stepping stones for a strong HACCP. If the PRPs in any organization are poor, the HACCP will undoubtedly fall apart. This research paper intends to throw light on how PRPs in food manufacturing units are understood, implemented and verified. For this purpose, manufacturers of food packaging in Delhi NCR region, India were identified who already have an FSMS like FSSC 22000:2011, ISO 22000:2005 etc. certification. The research was conducted in the form of open and closed end questionnaire to ascertain the views of company employees on PRPs. The results highlighted that the knowledge at the grass root is very weak and there is a lot of scope for improvement. The concept of PRPs, why and how are these being implemented have to be imparted to all the employees in the organization in order to implement food safety standards successfully. |