Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 requires food businesses to put in place, carry out and maintain permanent procedures based on the principles of HACCP.
What is HACCP?
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point. It is a system to find the hazards in each step of a food operation and control the ones that matter most, before they cause harm, rather than relying only on checking finished food.
The seven principles of HACCP
- Identify the hazards at each step and how to prevent, remove or reduce them (hazard analysis).
- Identify the critical control points (CCPs) — the steps where control is essential to prevent or remove a hazard or reduce it to a safe level. Cooking is a common CCP.
- Set critical limits — the value that separates safe from unsafe, for example a core cooking temperature of 75 °C.
- Monitor the CCPs — for example, probing food and recording the temperature.
- Take corrective action when monitoring shows a critical limit has not been met — for example, continue cooking until the food reaches 75 °C.
- Verify — check that the system is working, for example a manager reviewing records and checking probes.
- Keep documents and records to show the system is working.
HACCP must be reviewed when something changes — for example a new menu, new equipment or a new supplier.
The FSAI's Safe Catering pack
Many caterers in Ireland use the FSAI's Safe Catering pack. It is a HACCP-based food safety management system for catering businesses. It covers each step of the food chain — such as purchasing, delivery, storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, hot holding and serving — and gives the hazards, controls, critical limits and corrective actions for each.
It also includes record forms, for example:
- goods-in (delivery) records
- refrigeration records for fridges and freezers
- cooking, cooling and reheating records
- hot-holding records
- cleaning records
- training records
The FSAI also publishes other guidance for retail and other types of businesses. Your employer will show you the system your workplace uses.
Your role in HACCP
As a food worker you may not write the HACCP plan, but you make it work every day:
- Follow the procedures for your tasks exactly.
- Monitor what you are asked to monitor — temperatures, dates, cleaning — and record it.
- Take corrective action when something is wrong, record it, and tell your supervisor.
- Ask questions if a procedure is unclear or something changes.
Good records
Records are the evidence that food was handled safely. Inspectors will often ask to see them.
- Fill them in accurately, honestly and at the time of the check.
- Write clearly, sign or initial, and include the date and time.
- Never fill in records in advance or make up figures.
- Return records to their storage place. If electronic records are used and the system fails, use paper records.
A missing or false record can be as serious as a food safety failure — it means nobody can prove the food was safe.
Product withdrawals and recalls
If food is found to be unsafe after it has been supplied, it may be withdrawn (removed from sale) or recalled (customers asked to return it). The FSAI publishes food alerts and recalls. If you are told to remove a product:
- follow your workplace procedure
- remove and separate the product, label it clearly so nobody uses it
- record what was done and tell your supervisor
Customer complaints
If a customer complains about food — for example, they found a foreign object or feel ill — stay calm and polite, write down the details, keep the food and its packaging if possible, and pass it to your supervisor straight away. Do not argue or admit fault.
Co-operating with inspectors
When an inspector visits:
- be polite and helpful, and fetch the person in charge
- answer questions honestly and accurately
- show records when asked
Keep learning
Food safety training is not a single event. The FSAI guide recommends ongoing training, refresher training when skills slip, and new training when your job, equipment or menu changes. If you move into a supervisor role, you will need further training (Level 3 skills for management).
Prerequisites — the basics that support HACCP
HACCP only works when the basics are in place. These are often called prerequisites, and they are what most of this course has covered:
- personal hygiene and fitness to work
- training and supervision
- cleaning and disinfection
- pest control
- waste management
- maintenance of premises and equipment
- safe water supply
- supplier control and traceability
- allergen management
In practice
Every morning in a hotel kitchen, the breakfast cook checks the fridge and freezer temperatures and writes them on the refrigeration record. One morning the dessert fridge reads 9 °C. She tells the head chef, who moves the food to another fridge, probes it, decides what can be kept and what must be thrown away, and calls the engineer. The cook writes the reading, the action taken and her initials on the record.
This is HACCP in action: a hazard (bacterial growth), a limit (5 °C or below), monitoring (checking the fridge), corrective action (moving and assessing the food, repairing the fridge) and a record that proves it.