IDENTIFY POTENTIAL HAZARDS (HAZARD ANALYSIS)

Hazard analysis aims to systematically identify hazards at each step of processing. Potential hazards have been taken into consideration as they may have adverse impact on human health and safety. Therefore, a list of potential hazards which have not been controlled through Good Manufacturing Practices and procedures must be prepared. Hazards here refer to biological, chemical or physical agents that can be found in food and pose potential risks to cause health problems.

First and foremost, fresh cassava roots will be rotten within 3 to 4 days of harvest. Process of rotting that will eventually lead to biological hazard usually occurs during the transportation of cassava roots from farmer to producer. Rotten cassava roots have brown soft spots and a putrid smell. Most importantly, soft rot of cassava roots was actually caused by a complex of fungi such as Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Cylindrocarpon candidum and Trichoderma harzianum. Lasiodiplodia theobromae is a microorganism that can cause inflammation of the eye’s cornea (fungal keratitis), lesions on nail and subcutaneous tissue.

After that, during cassavas cleaning and peeling process, biological hazard as well as physical hazard exists respectively. Microbiological contamination may occur due to the poor hygiene of food handlers who do not wash the cassavas properly and resulted in foodborne illness. In addition, the peeling process poses physical hazard because the worker peel the cassavas manually, thus there is a possibility where the worker will accidentally cut his nail and a nail is being left in the cassavas. For example, there was a case regarding a 5-month-old baby chokes on fingernail found in his baby food (Velez, 2012).

Once the cassavas have been peeled, the ...

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...riorate the fat. Chemical changes that happen include oxidation, polymerization and hydrolysis. Some components such as trans-fatty acids, the highly oxidized or polymerized constituents of fatty acids, and acrylamide are produced from these chemical changes which are considered to be injurious to health.

Moreover, when adding salt to cassavas, physical hazard exist because the worker may add in some foreign materials instead of salt. There will be biological hazards when the worker proceeds to drying and cooling process, as the cooked cassavas will remain for a short time for drying and cooling before packaging, the air, and personnel may contaminate the food. Just to illustrate a situation where the cooked cassavas are left open to cool down, at the same time, the worker sneezes. Staphylococcus aureus pathogens will be transferred from the personnel to the food.