It feels foreign to me sitting in front of my laptop. I
haven’t typed any words about my life in nearly a month. A lot of my energy has
been taken up at work, especially in the past three weeks. I have taken on a
special assignment, and it’s been the most difficult undertaking in any of my
professional endeavors. I have written a HACCP
plan.
The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan was established
by Pillsbury for N.A.S.A. so that astronauts could bring food into outer space
with them that wouldn’t make them sick. It is as technical as you might think
anything developed by scientists would be, and I had to use all two years of my
high school education and take a 16-hour online course to get it right. I hope I
got it right. The application
for the HACCP plan through the Minnesota Department of Health is 25 pages long,
and this is all just for one process: ROP. Reduced oxygen packaging is a method
used by many wholesale manufacturers of whole meats, and by some restaurants that
have the ability to legally do so through the plan. It is essentially, no,
literally, vacuum packaging meats that we process into steaks to increase their
shelf-life. Some bacteria can grow in an anaerobic state, and we have to assure
the health department that we have taken every necessary precaution to ensure
the safety of the consumer.
Twenty-five pages is just the application. In addition to
the application, I had to include a hazard analysis, a list of control points
and critical points. I have to document my training and my subsequent training
of others. I have to document the calibration of our thermometers, the
temperatures of the meats, the places we store them, and the days we process. I
had to install data loggers in the storage areas which continuously record
temperatures and are uploaded on to my computer at work which I then print off
and keep for a year. All of these documents must be kept for a year and always
be available for inspection. I have to verify that the documents are correct.
I had to create something called a Process Flow Diagram. I
don’t know how to make shapes with the Word program, but I learned. I even made
arrows, almost all of which pointed in the correct directions. I explained in
great detail every step of a piece of meat from the minute we receive it at the
loading dock—including all of the potential hazards (biological, chemical, and
physical)along the way—to the moment we remove it from the package for cooking.
I am not a scientist. I’m probably closest to a doctor, but
Amanda doesn’t think that’s funny. I’m not a college graduate or even a high
school graduate. I got my G.E.D. sometime in the 1900’s and I have yet to use
the algebra I had to study to take the test. But I still took on a project that
the Department of Health recommends you hire out to scientists, consultants,
and people who have previously submitted plans of their own. My certificate
tells me I am a HACCP Manager, but I am definitely a HACCP greenhorn. But I did
it, and I’m incredibly proud of myself for doing something that looked
impossible from the get-go. Today I submitted our application and all
supporting documents and a check for $363, and I have to wait up to 30 days to
hear from whether I did well enough to have the plan approved.
If the plan is a go from the MNDH, they will come to the
club and I have to walk them through the entire process, and essentially show
them that I know what I have written and can implement it. The health
department always scares me a little. I’m always afraid that I don’t wash my
hands for long enough when they watch us, or that I don’t pick my nose at the
right time. But at every establishment I’ve ever worked, we always pass, and
another day is done.
Life at home is going well. Tonight I have three girls over
and there is more screaming and chaos than normal. Ella has a friend from
school sleeping over and Emme needs constant attention. I’ll end this post by
saying that I really miss writing, and I will try to find more time to do so in
the near future. In the meantime, please address me as Mr. Dr. Scientist
Maertz.
I say good day.
