When should a HACCP plan be checked has three answers and a plan states all three. On change: a new dish, a new process, a new supplier, a new oven, a new member of staff. On schedule: a review date the plan sets, at least annually for most small kitchens. On incident: a complaint, a missed limit that recurs, a recall notice. And verification runs all the time on the records: the probe calibrated, the sheets reviewed. 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 food safety audit checklist on this site is the check, free.
On change
A menu change adds dishes with hazards the analysis has not seen; a supplier change can change an allergen; a new oven changes cooking times; a new starter needs training on the critical control points. The plan is checked against the change, and the changed page re-dated.
On schedule
The plan states its review date and the review is recorded whether or not anything changed, because a plan never reviewed is one the inspector reads as abandoned. 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.
On incident
A complaint, a recurring miss at a control point, a recall: each is a reason to check whether the plan's control worked and whether the corrective action was the right one. The record of the check is part of the plan's history.
Verification, continuously
The probe checked against a known reference, the records read for gaps and patterns, the corrective actions confirmed. The audit checklist on this site is the routine; ProbeLedger Pro keeps the records so the review takes minutes. 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 when should a haccp plan be checked
Is an annual review enough?
As a minimum, with the change and incident triggers on top; a busy kitchen changes its menu more often than once a year.
Who checks the plan?
The plan owner, and the operator verifies; an external audit adds a second pair of eyes.
Is the checklist free?
Yes, without an account.