What is HACCP, for a working kitchen

An inspector arrives at a busy restaurant on a weekday afternoon and asks to see the food safety plan. The manager finds a thick folder in the office, written by a consultant three years ago. It describes dishes that are no longer on the menu, refers to a walk-in fridge that was replaced and has no temperature records for the last two months, because the sheets ran out and nobody printed more. The kitchen is clean and the food is safe. The folder says otherwise.

What is HACCP? It stands for hazard analysis and critical control points: a system for finding the points in a kitchen's work where food could become unsafe, and controlling them. It is the basis of food safety management in restaurants in many countries, and it is far simpler, and far more useful, than the thick folders it is often reduced to.

This guide covers what HACCP is, its seven principles in plain terms, what each means on a busy line, the four daily records that satisfy most of them, how HACCP relates to inspections and the food hygiene rating, and how to keep it alive rather than filed away. It describes general practice; the rules where you trade decide exactly what is required. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

HACCP is a preventive approach to food safety. Rather than checking finished dishes for problems, it looks at each step of the kitchen's work, from delivery to service, identifies what could go wrong at each step and puts controls in place at the points where they matter most.

The hazards it looks for are biological, such as bacteria; chemical, such as cleaning products or allergens; and physical, such as glass, metal or plastic in food. The controls are the everyday practices that keep each hazard in check.

HACCP matters because food safety failures harm guests, and a single serious failure can close a restaurant. A kitchen that knows where its risks are, and controls them every day, is far less likely to make a guest ill.

It also matters for the law and for inspections. In many places, food businesses must have a food safety management system based on HACCP principles, and inspectors expect to see it working, not just written down.

The first principle is to analyse the hazards: walk through every step of the kitchen's work, from delivery to service, and ask what could make the food unsafe at each step. Raw chicken arriving warm, cooked rice left to cool slowly, a knife used for raw and cooked food, a dish containing nuts served to a guest with an allergy.

In a working kitchen, the analysis is a conversation with the team about how each dish is really made, not a theoretical exercise. The cooks know where the shortcuts happen.

The second principle is to find the critical control points: the steps where control is essential to prevent or remove a hazard. Cooking chicken to a safe temperature is a critical control point; so is cooling cooked food quickly, keeping chilled food cold and keeping allergens separate.

Not every step is critical. Washing vegetables matters, but cooking is where the bacteria in raw meat are killed, so cooking is the critical point.

The third principle is to set critical limits: the measurable standards that separate safe from unsafe at each critical point. A core temperature that cooked food must reach, a maximum temperature for the fridge, a time within which cooked food must be cooled.

The limits should be clear and measurable, so a cook can check them in seconds. The rules where you trade, and the guidance from the authorities, set many of them.

The fourth principle is to monitor each critical control point: check that the limit is being met, every time or at set intervals. Probe the chicken to check its core temperature; read the fridge thermometer at opening and closing; time the cooling of a batch of stock.

Monitoring is where HACCP lives or dies in a working kitchen. A check that takes ten seconds and is built into the routine gets done; one that needs a form fetched from the office does not.

The fifth principle is to decide in advance what to do when a check fails: the corrective action. If the chicken has not reached its temperature, cook it longer. If the fridge is too warm, move the food, check how long it was warm and discard what may be unsafe. If a delivery arrives warm, refuse it.

Write the corrective actions down, so the cook on shift knows exactly what to do without asking. A failed check with no planned response often leads to food being served that should not be.

The sixth principle is to verify that the system works: check that the monitoring is being done, that the records are complete, that the thermometers are accurate and that the controls are working. A manager reviewing the week's records, or testing a probe in boiling water, is verification.

Verification catches the slow failures: the check that has quietly stopped being done, the thermometer that reads two degrees low, the cooling method that no longer works since the menu changed.

The seventh principle is to keep records and documents: the hazard analysis, the critical control points and their limits, the monitoring records, the corrective actions taken and the verification. Records show that the system is working, to the team and to an inspector.

Keep the records simple and current. Two months of complete, honest records are worth more than a beautiful plan with gaps.

In most kitchens, four daily records cover most of what HACCP needs. The first is fridge and freezer temperatures, checked at opening and closing. The second is cooking, cooling and reheating temperatures, probed for the dishes and batches that matter. The third is the cleaning schedule, signed off as each task is done. The fourth is deliveries, checked for temperature, condition and dates on arrival.

Together, they cover the main hazards of most restaurant kitchens. Our guide to temperature records that take one minute covers how to make the first two quick.

Temperature records are the heart of the daily routine. Each fridge and freezer is checked and recorded at least twice a day; each batch of food cooked, cooled or reheated for later use is probed and recorded.

Make the records easy: a sheet by each fridge, or a simple digital log, with the time, the reading and the initials. Check that the probes are clean and accurate, and replace them when they are not.

Allergens are a chemical hazard in HACCP terms, and they need their own controls: knowing which dishes contain which allergens, keeping allergen-free preparation separate where needed, labelling stored food and making sure every allergy on an order reaches the cook and the pass.

Treat allergen control as a critical control point in its own right. A guest with a serious allergy can be harmed by a trace, and the controls must reflect that.

The thick folder is where many HACCP systems go to die. Written once, filed in the office and never updated, it describes a kitchen that no longer exists. Our guide to HACCP without a folder nobody updates covers how to keep the system alive.

The fix is to keep the plan short and current, and the records where the work happens: by the fridges, at the pass, at the delivery door. A plan that matches the real kitchen, and records that are filled in as the work is done, are what HACCP is meant to be.

Every menu change is a moment to review the HACCP plan. A new dish may introduce a new hazard: a raw ingredient, a long cooling process, a new allergen. A dish removed may make a control unnecessary.

Walk through each new dish with the team before it goes on the menu: how it is prepared, where the risks are and what checks it needs. Add the checks to the daily records.

HACCP only works if the team understands it. Train every cook on the critical control points for their section, the limits, the checks they must do and what to do when a check fails. Train front of house on allergens and on what to do when a guest reports feeling unwell.

Keep the training practical: show the probe, the fridge sheet and the cleaning schedule, and explain why each one matters. A cook who understands why the stock must cool within a set time does it properly.

Inspectors look for evidence that the food safety system works: a plan that matches the kitchen, records that are complete and honest, a team that knows the checks and a kitchen that is clean and organised.

An inspector who finds complete temperature records, a current plan and cooks who can explain their checks is seeing HACCP working. One who finds a thick folder and empty record sheets is seeing a system that exists only on paper.

In places with a published food hygiene rating, such as the UK, the rating reflects how well the business manages food safety, including its records and its confidence in management. A working HACCP system is one of the foundations of a good rating.

Our guide to food hygiene rating: earning the top score covers what inspectors look for and how to prepare.

The principles of HACCP are international, but the rules for restaurants differ between countries and authorities. In England and Wales, many small businesses use the Food Standards Agency's Safer Food, Better Business pack; in Dubai, venues work with the Municipality's food safety requirements and its trained person in charge.

Know the rules where you trade, and use the format the authorities expect. Our guide to food safety in Dubai: inspections and records covers one city's version.

Review the whole HACCP system at least once a year, and whenever something significant changes: a new menu, a new piece of equipment, a new supplier, a food safety incident. Check that the plan matches the kitchen, the limits are right and the records are being kept.

A yearly review, with the head chef and the manager, takes an hour or two and keeps the system honest.

Cooling is one of the most important critical control points, and one of the most often neglected. Cooked food that cools slowly passes through the temperatures at which bacteria grow fastest. Large pots of stock, rice and sauces are the usual risk.

Cool food quickly: divide it into shallow containers, use an ice bath or a blast chiller where available and record the times and temperatures. A batch of rice left on the side to cool for hours is a hazard, however well it was cooked.

Reheating is another critical point. Food reheated for service must reach a safe temperature throughout, and it should be reheated only once.

Probe reheated food at its thickest point, and record the reading. A sauce that is warm on top and cold in the middle has not been reheated safely.

Personal hygiene is part of every HACCP plan: handwashing, clean uniforms, hair tied back, no work while ill with symptoms that could spread to food. The controls are simple, but they depend on every person every day.

Make handwashing easy, with basins stocked and placed where they are needed, and make it normal for staff to report illness without fear of losing pay unfairly.

Pests are a hazard every kitchen must control: rodents, insects, birds. Prevention is the first control: sealed gaps, clean floors, food stored off the floor and covered, rubbish removed regularly.

Many venues use a pest control contractor, with regular visits and records. Keep the reports, and act on what they find.

Cleaning chemicals are a chemical hazard. Store them away from food, in labelled containers, and use them at the right strength. Rinse surfaces where the instructions say so.

Keep the product information for each chemical where the team can find it. A cleaning product decanted into an unlabelled bottle is an accident waiting to happen.

The first critical points are often at the back door: chilled and frozen food must arrive at safe temperatures, in good condition and within its dates. Check and record each delivery, and refuse anything that fails.

Store food correctly at once: raw below cooked, chilled food in the fridge within minutes, everything labelled and dated. A delivery left on the floor for an hour has undone the supplier's care.

A small kitchen with a short menu needs a short HACCP plan. The principles are the same, but the hazards and controls are fewer, and the records can be simple.

Do not let the size of the kitchen be a reason to skip the plan. A small kitchen can make a guest just as ill as a large one, and inspectors expect the same evidence of control.

New staff are the people most likely to miss a check, because they do not yet know the routine. Include HACCP in every induction: the checks for their section, the records, the limits and what to do when a check fails.

Pair new cooks with experienced ones for the checks in their first week. A new cook who is shown how to probe a dish and record it does it properly from the start.

Many kitchens now keep their food safety records digitally: temperatures entered on a tablet, cleaning tasks ticked on a screen, reminders when a check is due. Digital records can be easier to keep and harder to lose.

Whatever the format, the principle is the same: the record is made when the check is done, by the person who did it, and reviewed by someone else.

Contractors, delivery drivers and visitors who enter the kitchen bring their own risks. Set simple rules for anyone entering: hands washed, protective clothing where needed and nothing placed on food surfaces.

The person in charge of the shift is responsible for making sure the rules are followed, whoever the visitor is.

The cooks who work each station know where the risks really are. Ask them, regularly, what could go wrong on their section and whether the checks still fit the work. A question asked at a briefing often finds a hazard the written plan missed.

An invented brasserie's HACCP plan is a consultant's folder from three years ago, and its temperature sheets have gaps. The head chef rewrites the plan on a few pages, from the current menu, with the team: the hazards for each dish, the critical points, the limits and the corrective actions. Fridge sheets go up beside each fridge, a probe log sits at the pass and the cleaning schedule is signed off at the end of each shift.

The sous chef checks the week's records every Monday and tests the probes monthly. When the next inspection comes, the records are complete, the cooks explain their checks without hesitation and the plan matches the kitchen in front of the inspector.

servearound does not keep HACCP plans, temperature logs, cleaning schedules or training records, so those are kept on your own sheets or a dedicated system. What it holds is part of the allergen control: each dish's allergens and dietary tags, shown to guests on the menu, and the guest's allergies at the head of every kitchen ticket, with a dish shown in red when it contains one of them.

Allergies recorded on a booking are saved to the guest's profile, so they are there on the next visit. See point of sale and kitchen.

Hazard analysis and critical control points: a preventive system for food safety.

Analyse hazards, find critical control points, set limits, monitor, correct, verify and keep records.

The steps where control is essential, such as cooking, cooling, chilling and allergen separation.

Usually fridge and freezer temperatures, cooking and cooling temperatures, cleaning and deliveries.

Fridges at least twice a day; food at the critical steps.

Only if it matches the kitchen and the records are kept.

A working system is one of the foundations of a good rating.

At least yearly, and whenever the menu or equipment changes.

What is HACCP? It is a system for finding where food could become unsafe and controlling those points: analyse the hazards, find the critical control points, set limits, monitor, correct, verify and keep records. In a working kitchen, four daily records, fridge temperatures, cooking and cooling temperatures, cleaning and deliveries, cover most of it.

Keep the plan short and current, the temperature records where the work happens and the checks quick enough to be done on a busy night. Treat allergens as a control in their own right, train the team on the reasons, review the system yearly and let good food safety earn the food hygiene rating it deserves.