The underlying approach under HACCP for preventing foodborne illness and promote quality is to identify the danger spots and try to avoid them. Instead of putting the burden on government to discover that a food safety problem exists, HACCP shifts responsibility onto the industry to ensure that the food it produces is safe. Food producers will have to prevent bacterial contamination from occurring in the first place. HACCP works by the following principles:
* Identify the likely health hazards to consumers in a given product.
* Identify the critical points in the processing where the hazards may occur.
* Establish safety measures to prevent the hazard from occurring.
* Monitor to make sure the safety measures are working.
* Establish an appropriate remedy if monitoring shows a problem.
* Establish detailed record keeping to document monitoring and remedies taken.
* Verify that the whole system is working.

This definition is in context to Food and Health. See more contextual defintions for Haccp (Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Points).