Understanding Barriers to the Effective Implementation of HACCP in the Ontario Food Processing Sector

The proposal aims to improve understanding of the factors influencing adoption of HACCP by food processing enterprises in Ontario, and to identify effective strategies through which barriers to adoption can be alleviated, with particular emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises that are non federally-registered. It seeks both to identify and quantify the factors motivating adoption of HACCP, the associated firm-level costs and benefits, and the barriers that can act to inhibit the implementation of HACCP. These are compared across sub-sectors of food processing and enterprise size.
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The project consists of eight stages. Initially, a thorough review of previous studies on HACCP adoption and extensive consultation with key stakeholders and informants in Ontario are undertaken. The first stage of data collection involves a series (n=36) of case studies of food processing enterprises that have implemented HACCP, encompassing a range of sub-sectors and enterprises of differing size (including those that are not federally-registered). The case studies aim to produce in-depth information on the process of HACCP adoption, the associated firm-level costs and benefits and the barriers that need to be overcome. The second stage of data collection involves a postal survey (n=1,000) of food processing enterprises, aiming to both validate and quantify the results of the case studies and to provide an estimate of the numbers and types of food processing enterprises that have adopted HACCP in Ontario. Potential strategies through which the implementation of HACCP might be enhanced in Ontario are then developed through extensive consultation and a Delphi survey of key stakeholders and informants. These are then integrated into a framework that can be used by government agency and/or the food-processing sector directly to facilitate HACCP adoption.