There have been very few studies of the motivation for food businesses to implement HACCP in the UK and the resultant costs and benefits. As a consequence, it is difficult to evaluate the extent to which the balance of costs and benefits to businesses acts as an incentive/ disincentive for the adoption of HACCP. The aim of this paper is to explore the process of HACCP implementation in the UK food sector, using the dairy processing sector as a case study. The paper reports the initial results of a survey which addresses the following questions:

• What motivates companies to implement HACCP in their plant(s)?
• What are the major costs of implementing and operating HACCP?
• What problems are encountered in implementing HACCP?
• What are the major benefits of HACCP?

The dairy processing sector has been chosen primarily because it is one of the few sectors within the UK food processing industry which is subject to a legal requirement to implement a HACCP-based food safety control system.

Respondents were asked to score the importance of a variety of issues which previous studies have indicated can motivate the implementation of food quality control systems. The motives for implementing HACCP differed between individual businesses, even though the sector is subject to a legal requirement to implement a HACCP-based food safety control system (Table 1). A number of the respondents had implemented HACCP prior to the promulgation of any legal requirement to do so. Further, it is evident that the requirements of major customers, pressure to conform with prevailing market standards of good hygiene practice, as well as the need to improve internal efficiency have all played a part in motivating businesses to implement HACCP in the UK dairy processing sector.

TABLE 1. Mean Importance Scores in Descending Order for Factors in Decision to Develop/Implement HACCP:

Factor	Mean Score
Meet legal requirements	6.11a
Meet the needs of major customers	6.02a
Generally regarded as good practice	5.86b
Improve control of production process	5.78b
Improve product quality	5.70b
Attract new customers for products	5.37
Hold onto existing customers for products	5.11c
Reduce customer complaints	4.92c
Improve efficiency/profitability of plant	4.60
Reduce product wastage	4.12
Needed for plant to be third party accredited	3.70d
Reduce need for quality audits by customers	3.53d
Recommended by trade organisation	3.24
Access new overseas markets	2.58

Note: Items denoted by same letter are not significantly different to each other at 5 per cent level based on Wilcoxon sign rank test.

Respondents were also asked to rank a series of costs which previous studies have shown to be associated with the implementation and operation of HACCP. The costs of implementing and operating HACCP varied between individual businesses according to their own particular circumstances and the prevailing standards to which they operate (Tables 2 and 3). However, the major costs associated with both the implementation and operation of HACCP seem to be associated with staff time rather than investment in new equipment or upgrading the structure of processing facilities. It is evident from the survey that in most cases businesses do not formally estimate the costs associated with HACCP prior to implementation, however they clearly have a 'feel' for the cost involved. Consequently, many of the costs of implementing HACCP are approximately in line with prior expectations.

TABLE 2. Rank Scores for Costs of Implementing HACCP:

Cost	Proportion of Respondents Giving Zero Rank	Proportion of Respondents Giving Rank of One
External consultants	55.1%	16.7%
Investment in new equipment	54.5%	7.7%
Staff training	9.0%	14.1%
Managerial changes	61.3%	6.1%
Structural changes to plant	53.9%	6.5%
Staff time in documenting system	5.8%	45.5%

TABLE 3. Rank Scores for Costs of Operating HACCP:

Cost	Proportion of Respondents Giving Zero Rank	Proportion of Respondents Giving Rank of One
Record keeping	12.8%	41.2%
Product testing	24.5%	25.9%
Staff training	11.1%	18.2%
Managerial/supervisory time	16.9%	17.6%

Respondents to the survey did not appear to have experienced major difficulties implementing HACCP in their plant. Those difficulties which were experienced were mainly associated with the motivation and training of staff. This applied to both production and supervisory/managerial staff.

There was great variation in the benefits which respondents to the survey claimed to have obtained as a direct result of implementing/operating HACCP. However, this probably reflects, at least in part, the intangible nature of many of the potential benefits of HACCP and the difficulty in separating out the effects of other changes which might have taken place simultaneous to the implementation of HACCP. The benefit which was most widely experienced appears to be an increased ability to hold onto existing customers. This suggests that the main impact of HACCP is to enable businesses to meet the increasing demands of the marketplace rather than obtain any real competitive advantage.

The results of the survey raise a number of important issues with respect to the future development of HACCP in the UK dairy processing sector, as well as the food processing sector as a whole, both in the UK and in other countries. It is anticipated that further analysis of the survey data will enrich the findings reported in this paper and provide a more in-depth analysis of the costs and benefits associated with the implementation and operation of HACCP.

¹Spencer Henson is a Lecturer, Georgina Holt a Research Fellow and James Northen a Research Assistant, Centre for Food Economics Research (CeFER), Department of Agricultural and Food Economics, The University of Reading, UK

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