HACCP explained for small food businesses

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point. It is a systematic way to identify what could go wrong in your food operation, decide where to control it, and prove you are doing so. Food businesses are expected to put in place a procedure based on HACCP principles.

The seven principles, simply

• Hazard analysis: identify the biological, chemical and physical hazards at each step.
• Critical control points (CCPs): the points where a control is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard.
• Critical limits: the values that separate safe from unsafe — a temperature, a time, a pH.
• Monitoring: the checks that prove the limit is being met.
• Corrective action: what happens when a limit is breached.
• Verification: periodic checks that the system works — calibrations, reviews, audits.
• Record-keeping: the evidence you would show an inspector.

Keeping the plan live

A HACCP plan filed away and forgotten helps no one. The aim is to connect the plan to the daily records that evidence it — temperatures, cleaning and goods-in logs — so the plan and the proof stay together. Better Food Safety lets you write or upload your plan, define CCPs with limits and corrective actions, and link the monitoring that backs them. The FDA's HACCP guidance is a good starting point for businesses of all sizes.