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HACCP
HACCP is a food safety management system. A plant identifies where its process could go wrong, sets controls at those points, monitors them and records the result. It runs continuously at the factory, and nothing about it travels with a consignment.
The essentials.
- What it is
- A structured method for identifying hazards in a food process and controlling them at the points where control matters.1
- Where it lives
- At the processing plant, in its procedures and its records. It is an operating system rather than a document issued per shipment.1
- What rests on it
- The export health certificate. An authority signing that a consignment meets public health requirements is relying on the system behind it.2
Who asks for it.
This travels with the goods wherever they go. Either Indonesia requires it on the way out, or it is an ordinary trade document that any buyer, bank and carrier expects to see.
What it does not cover.
A certificate is not the system
Third-party certification confirms an assessor looked at the plant on a date. The value is in whether the monitoring records are real and current, which is what an audit actually examines.
It says nothing about your product
HACCP addresses safety hazards. Grade, size, colour, yield and every other commercial term stay in the contract and in the pre-shipment inspection.
Questions buyers ask.
Should I ask for a HACCP certificate?
Ask, and then ask what it covers and when it was last audited. A certificate for one product line at one site tells you nothing about a second line, and a plant on the EU approved list has already been assessed on this ground.
What should an audit actually look at?
The monitoring records for the last few months, and whether the corrective actions in them were closed. A folder of procedures nobody fills in is common and is exactly what a paper check misses.
Where this comes up.
Indonesian yellowfin tuna
Cuts, cold chain and the two EU requirements you cannot arrange late: a flag-state validated catch certificate and an approved processing plant.
Indonesian vannamei shrimp
How farmed vannamei is counted, processed and shipped, and why the paperwork differs from wild-caught seafood: no catch certificate, but residues.
Indonesian blue swimming crab
Caught, hand-picked and pasteurised. Why the picking stations between the boat and the exporter are the traceability problem the EU cares about.
Indonesian octopus
Wild-caught by small boats across thousands of islands. What the size codes mean, and why the catch certificate decides who can supply Europe.
Worth reading.
Sources
- 1General principles of food hygiene and the HACCP system. Codex Alimentarius, FAO and WHO. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2Entering the European market for fresh tuna. CBI, Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Checked 3 August 2026.
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