The 7 steps of HACCP are the seven principles the FDA's guidelines cited below describe, and a kitchen does them in order. The FDA's HACCP principles and application guidelines, cited below, describe HACCP as a systematic approach to the identification, evaluation and control of food safety hazards based on seven principles. Step one finds the hazards; two finds where they are controlled; three sets the limit; four measures it; five says what to do when it is missed; six checks the system works; seven keeps the evidence. The HACCP plan template on this site prints steps one to six from the kitchen's processes, free; the paid product keeps step seven.
Steps one and two
Hazard analysis at each process step, then the critical control points: the steps where the hazard is prevented, removed or reduced and no later step will do it. Cooking, cooling, reheating, hot and cold holding in most kitchens. The gov.uk guidance for food businesses, cited below, says a food safety management system must meet the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point principles, and describes critical control points as the points when you need to prevent, remove or reduce a hazard in your work process.
Steps three and four
The same guidance gives the cooking standard as 70°C for 2 minutes, or the equivalents it lists, 75°C for 30 seconds among them. The Food Standards Agency's cooking-your-food guidance, cited below, gives the danger zone as between 8 and 63°C, where bacterial growth occurs, and says leftovers must be cooled and put in the fridge within two hours and eaten within 48 hours. Each limit gets a monitoring routine: who measures, when, with what, into which record. The hot food temperature check and the temperature log planner on this site are the records.
Steps five and six
Corrective actions written before the miss: what to do with the food, the equipment and the record. Verification: the probe calibrated, the records reviewed, the plan audited against the menu. The audit checklist on this site is step six.
Step seven
The records, kept for every trading day, are the evidence for the other six. ProbeLedger Pro keeps them against the plan. FoodDocs lists its Lite plan at $99 per site per month billed monthly or $79 billed annually, and its Standard plan at $199 per site per month, with a free 14-day trial, on its pricing page cited below. ProbeLedger Pro is $49 per month for the whole site.
Questions people ask about 7 steps of haccp
Are the 7 steps the same as the 7 principles?
Yes; the guidelines call them principles and kitchens call them steps.
What comes before step one?
Describing the product and drawing the process flow, which the guidelines set out as preparation.
Is the template free?
Yes, without an account.