PRP (Prerequisite Programme)
HACCP gets the glory, but PRPs do the heavy lifting. They’re the basic conditions and activities — cleaning, pest control, maintenance, training — that keep the whole environment safe. Without them, CCPs are guards at the gate of a burning building.
Definition
Prerequisite programmes are the fundamental conditions and activities necessary to maintain a hygienic environment throughout the food chain — the foundation on which HACCP-based controls are built. In ISO 22000 language: PRPs; the operationally critical ones aimed at specific hazards are OPRPs.
Key facts
- PRP territory: premises design and maintenance, cleaning and disinfection, pest control, water quality, personal hygiene, training, waste management, equipment calibration.
- The sector detail lives in the ISO 22002 series — 22002-1 for food manufacturing, -2 for catering, -3 for farming, and others. These turn “have PRPs” into specific requirements.
- PRPs are managed by inspection and schedule rather than continuous measurement — but “managed” is doing real work there. An unmonitored PRP is a wish.
- The Codex logic is explicit: GHPs/PRPs first, HACCP second. You cannot identify meaningful CCPs in a plant where the basics don’t function.
- Common failure: PRPs documented beautifully and executed never. Auditors check execution — the cleaning records, the pest reports, the maintenance logs.
Why it matters
HACCP plans of genuine sophistication sit on top of PRPs that exist only in a manual — more often than anyone admits. The result is predictable: the CCPs hold, and product still gets contaminated from the environment nobody controlled. PRPs are unglamorous — drains, training records, pest sightings — but they prevent the background contamination that makes headlines. Get them real before you get them certified.
Sources: Codex Alimentarius; ISO 22002 series.
Quick reference
| Element | Detail |
| What | Hygienic foundations: cleaning, pests, maintenance… |
| Detail specs | ISO 22002 series (by sector) |
| Managed by | Schedules, inspection, checklists |
| Relation to HACCP | Foundation first (Codex order) |
| Audit focus | Execution evidence, not just documents |