How To Write A HACCP Plan

How to Write a HACCP Plan

Most food businesses that struggle with HACCP don't struggle because it's complicated. They struggle because the person at the top either doesn't know what's required or doesn't want to take the time to find out.

I've seen it first hand. A piece of glass on a mixer, cleaned every day for years — but never documented. Not because the team were negligent. Because nobody at the top had sat down and built the hazard analysis that would have caught it.

When the owner is diligent, it shows everywhere. When they're not, it shows everywhere too. HACCP is no different. Here's how to do it properly.

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The Seven Principles of HACCP

Every HACCP plan is built around seven internationally recognised principles. They're not suggestions — they're the framework your entire food safety system sits on.

Step 1: Conduct a Hazard Analysis

Map your entire food process from delivery through to service. At every stage, ask: what could go wrong here? Hazards fall into three categories:

• Biological — bacteria, viruses, parasites
• Chemical — cleaning products, allergens, packaging chemicals
• Physical — glass, metal, plasters, hard objects

Most people get biological and chemical. Physical is the one that catches businesses out — because it's easy to walk past something every day and stop seeing it. That's not laziness. That's human nature. The document is what forces you to look.

"The failure at hazard analysis is almost always not knowing or not wanting to know. And that failure comes from the top."

Step 2: Identify Critical Control Points (CCPs)

A CCP is any step in your process where control is essential to prevent a food safety hazard. Common ones in UK kitchens:

• Cooking food to safe internal temperatures
• Chilling food rapidly (within 90 minutes)
• Hot holding above 63°C
• Preventing cross-contamination
• Maintaining fridge and freezer temperatures

CCPs are actually easier to follow than most people expect — but only if Step 1 was done properly. If you've identified the hazards and trained your team on the controls, the monitoring becomes routine. The problem is when businesses skip the hazard analysis and try to bolt CCPs on afterwards. It doesn't work.

Step 3: Establish Critical Limits

Each CCP needs a measurable limit. Not a rough guide — a specific, enforceable number based on FSA guidance:

• Chicken must reach 75°C for 30 seconds
• Hot holding must stay at 63°C or above
• Chilled foods must be kept below 5°C
• Food must cool from 63°C to 8°C within 90 minutes

Step 4: Set Monitoring Procedures

Monitoring is how you prove your controls are working. Probe checks, fridge temperature logs, cooling records, delivery checks — all of it needs to be consistent, recorded, and done by trained staff.

This is where paper starts to cause problems. It goes missing. People's handwriting becomes unreadable under service pressure. Records get dirty, wet, illegible. There's a lot of it. A digital system removes most of that friction — every entry is timestamped, legible, and in one place.

Step 5: Define Corrective Actions

When a limit isn't met, staff need to know exactly what to do — without having to think about it. Document it clearly:

• Re-cook food that doesn't reach the required temperature
• Discard food that's been in the danger zone too long
• Report and repair faulty equipment immediately
• Move stock to a working fridge without delay

Step 6: Verify the System

Verification means checking that your HACCP plan is actually working — not just that the logs are being filled in. Review your temperature records. Check probe calibration. Look for patterns. If the same issue keeps appearing, the corrective action isn't working. A supervisor sign-off weekly or monthly keeps the system honest.

Step 7: Documentation and Record Keeping

Your records are your evidence. If you can't show an inspector that controls have been consistently monitored, the plan might as well not exist. Key documents every food business needs:

• Daily temperature checks
• Cooking and cooling logs
• Cleaning schedules
• Supplier and delivery checks
• Staff training records
• Probe calibration records
• Incident and corrective action reports

How Often Should You Review Your HACCP Plan?

At minimum, annually. But also whenever your menu changes, after equipment upgrades, after a food safety incident, or after inspection feedback. A quick review every three to six months keeps it relevant and avoids the scenario where your plan describes a kitchen that no longer exists.

The Most Common Mistake

It's not overcomplicating the plan. It's not missing a document. The most common mistake is simply not caring enough to do it properly in the first place.

Some business owners genuinely don't think food safety is that important — until an inspector arrives, or someone gets ill. HACCP only works when the person at the top takes it seriously. When they do, that attitude filters through to every member of staff, every shift, every log entry. When they don't, no amount of templates or checklists will save them.

"If it's diligent at the top, it's diligent everywhere."

A Note on Tools

Culinary Key is built around the controls a HACCP plan requires — temperature records, daily checks, cleaning logs, probe checks — so that monitoring becomes part of the daily routine rather than extra work on top of it. The records are always there, always legible, and always ready for inspection.