The Food Standard Agency (FSA) estimates around 2.4 million cases of foodborne illness occur in the UK every year, costing the country up to £9 billion annually. Practising food safety is therefore imperative to minimising the risk of such widespread damage.
Given the dire consequences of haphazardly handling food, the best approach to food safety is a systematic one, specifically with an HACCP plan.
What is an HACCP plan?
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is an internationally recognised system of addressing hazards in food operations through rigorous identification of such hazards and exhaustive preventative measures.
HACCP follows seven principles, the last of which dictates that you establish a thorough recordkeeping and documentation process. Part of this process requires that you create a detailed HACCP plan.
Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 also states that food businesses should have a food safety management system based on HACCP principles. Having an HACCP plan therefore isn’t just for best practices, it is a legal requirement to operate a food business.
How do you write an HACCP plan?
A comprehensive HACCP plan generally requires a deep knowledge of food safety and important documents on hand. However, you can get started building a simple HACCP plan by following these steps:
Prepare your basic food safety procedures
Creating an HACCP plan starts with the basic food safety procedures that you should already have in place for general sanitation. As written documents, these can serve as a solid foundation for the HACCP plan itself to build on. These include:
- Sanitation standard operating procedures
- Physical layout of your food business
- Employee training for food safety
- Food hygiene posters
- Air and water controls
- Pest control
- Waste management
Build a dedicated HACCP team
The creation of an HACCP plan is not the job of just one person. The responsibility needs to be spread out to a team to achieve the best results. Each HACCP team member must also have knowledge of food safety principles.
An HACCP team needs a representative from all the departments that touch the food production process. From the engineers to the operators to the quality control staff, there needs to be multiple perspectives included in the team composition. They are in charge of raising safety and quality concerns that affect their respective departments, as well as providing key input in addressing such concerns.
Identify your products and their distribution method
You can only truly assess the risks and hazards that come with the food you offer when you know exactly what it is as a product.
You need to be able to provide a complete description of all your products, including their physical dimensions and visual appearance, and all the way down to their ingredients and allergens. The more specific you can be with such details, the better your HACCP plan can be.
How your food products get to and from your place of business also needs to be written down, as the process can affect their quality.
Identify your target audience
The HACCP team you assembled must be able to specify who exactly your product is for, as special considerations may have to be factored into developing the plan when accounting for certain audiences.
Are you targeting children? Seniors? Maybe you are catering to a niche group like vegetarians or vegans. Whichever your primary audience, their needs have to be at the forefront of your HACCP plan.
Illustrate your entire food process with a flow diagram
Your team should be able to neatly outline the entire process of your food operations with a simple flow diagram. Include every step of the process, starting from the receipt of raw materials to preparation and all the way to delivery. Having the process laid out in such a manner makes it much easier to develop an HACCP plan.
Processes may vary depending on what products you offer. You need to show in the diagram where the process flow diverges, such as when preparing animal products and non-animal products, and where the flow may converge.
Verify the previous steps
Go over all the information you have prepared for this process. Do you have all the existing documentation of your food safety procedures? Is your HACCP team fully representative of your food operations, and are they equipped to handle the responsibilities? Are all your products properly identified, with their target audience and distribution methods accounted for?
The flow diagram should be a comprehensive yet easy-to-read visualisation of your entire food process. Review the whole structure to make sure it covers everything and that it flows correctly.
Over time, there may be changes to your process that necessitate updating all the documentation you’ve prepared for your HACCP plan, so you will need to adjust and verify once more.
Prepare for Your HACCP Plan
You cannot afford to cut corners with food safety, so it is crucial that your HACCP plan is meticulously designed. Following the steps outlined in this article should give you a structured approach to writing your own HACCP plan.
To ensure that your HACCP plan checks all the boxes and complies with industry regulations, get help from the Health & Safety Dept. We are experts in HACCP, and can provide training and advice for developing food safety management systems. Contact us today for information and bookings for our HACCP courses.
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