The HACCP process is the order in which a plan is built and then run. Describe what the kitchen makes and the processes it uses. Draw the flow from receiving to serving. At each step, analyse the hazards. Decide the critical control points. Set a limit at each. Monitor, correct when a limit is missed, verify the system works, and keep the records. 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. The HACCP plan template on this site prints the plan from the process list, free.
Describe and draw
The menu grouped by process: things cooked and served hot, things cooked and cooled, things served raw, things reheated. The flow for each from receiving through storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, holding and serving. The template on this site counts the steps and prints the flow as the plan's spine.
Analyse and decide
At each step, the biological, chemical, physical and allergen hazards, and whether this step is where the hazard is prevented, removed or reduced. 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. The decided points are the critical control points, and a small kitchen usually has a handful.
Set limits, monitor, correct
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 and a corrective action decided in advance. The hot food temperature check and the temperature log planner on this site are the monitoring records.
Verify and record
The probe calibrated, the records reviewed, the plan checked against the menu when it changes. The records kept for every trading day. ProbeLedger Pro keeps them against the plan; the audit checklist on this site is the verification walk.
Questions people ask about haccp process
How often is the HACCP process repeated?
The plan is reviewed when the menu, the equipment or the process changes and at a set interval; the monitoring runs daily.
Do I need a flow diagram?
The flow is the plan's structure; a simple list of steps per process does the same job for a small kitchen.
Is the template free?
Yes, without an account.