What is an HACCP plan?
The HACCP plan is a food safety control plan. It has become one of the most popular ways to ensure that the food you serve is safe for consumption. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points and is intended to protect food from any hazards or contamination which could lead to illness. These hazards include pathogens like bacteria, parasites, viruses, and chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers.
How to Draw up an Achievable HACCP Plan for Your Restaurant
What is a HACCP Plan and Why is it Important?
The haccp system helps preserve food hygiene at a restaurant so that the end product is safe to consume. A haccp plan helps the food establishment identify food safety hazards and eliminate them through standard practices. Food manufacturers need to make sure that Food Safety hazards are avoided during the production, packaging, and at the final stage of consumption by the end-user.
Some people are allergic to certain foods, be it milk, gluten, or peanuts. The haccp plan helps to maintain food standards by conducting hazard analysis critical for people's safety. If you want to serve healthy, nourishing food to your customers you must establish corrective actions and avoid any kind of medical emergency that might jeopardize your restaurant's reputation and land you in a legal rangle.
Create a HACCP Plan in 7 Simple Steps- 1 Conduct a Hazard Analysis
To ensure food safety, haccp principles need to be followed diligently. There are seven principles in the HCCP plan that have been approved by the USDA and Health Department. These include temperature control standards, methods to preserve perishable goods, and other aspects related to food supply, preparation and cooking.
1. Hazard Analysis-
This is a list of potential hazards that can occur at your restaurant. Hazard analysis considers all aspects of food such as being cautious while serving food to the elderly, immuno-suppressed, kids, and sick people and asking them for any allergies before serving them food. The employees should be skilled and educated so that they don't serve hazardous food like stale food, raw food, or overcooked food to their customers. Handling food temperatures in correct temperatures and working cautiously around high heat deep-frying cooking. In conducting hazard analysis high priority should be given to the cleanliness and maintenance of the food storage area and food preparation wing.
You can make a written document of all the hazards that can occur in your workspace and compromise your food safety plan by using the list as per requirement.
You want to set up a HACCP plan but you don’t know where to begin.
This article offers a step-by-step guide that will help you create a workable plan in no time.
Seven principles step 2. Identify Critical Control Points
Now that you know all the hazardous things that can happen you must stop them from happening altogether through establish verification and this verification is known as a critical control point. Say for example you are cooking meat poultry then the Critical control point (CCP) helps you in knowing till what temperature you can cook that dish for it to be fully cooked and where it can become overcooked. The deciding factor is where critical control points come in. Another example for CCP can be re-heating the cooked food. So, under CCP guidelines, food can be reheated only once and at high temperatures, if not done correctly, the food can taste oily or too tight. When you are careful with CCP guidelines, you can stop any foodborne illness to take place in and around your restaurant kitchen as well as via food service.
Seven principles step 3. Set up Critical Limits
By establishing a critical limit you can recognize CCP. There should be an alarming point set for chemical biological chemical physical hazards that can be monitored every now and then through equipment that can measure temperature levels, time, presence of chemicals like chlorine, pH balance, and so on of food items from time to time.
Maintaining excellent quality helps the food industry in maintaining its reputation and supplying good quality food to its customers. Pillsbury was the first company that recognized and established critical limits to its manufacturing retail food and other food business.
Seven principles step 4. Frame Monitoring Procedures
With plan haccp you can monitor and measure the flow of food every day by record keeping of food items in report form in your inventory software for regular assessment. It is a regular safety program that needs to be seen thoroughly by the senior employees and one of the important points among seven principles
Food preservation also comes under a monitoring system that assesses the temperature of food items lying in the refrigerator in the stock room to be used for future use.
Managing food safety can be a challenge.
A HACCP plan will help you meet these objectives. This article will show you how to set one up.
Seven principles step 5. Set up Corrective Actions
Corrective actions are taken if the methods suggested for a control point haccp were not met. This means the person responsible for decision making still can take corrective measures by hazard identification and correcting it either by controlling its temperature by raising the temperature and cooking the food completely or throwing the product entirely as it is not fit for consumption. These verification procedures should have prerequisite programs in which what, when and hows of corrective actions are decided before the problem occurs.
Seven principles step 6. Evaluate Your HACCP Plan
Once the HACCP plan has been regulated for your kitchen's safety, you need to verify it to make sure all aspects related to haccp food have been adopted and ready for implementation. This is also a crucial step where you can make timely modifications in your haccp plan by making it technically and scientifically complete. You can take expert advice who has in-depth knowledge on food safety and kitchen hygiene.
Seven principles step 7. Maintain Records of points ccps
Now that you have established critical control points ccps for your commercial kitchen safety management you need a process where you can document every action related to establishing food safety.
You can make use of measuring equipment that can check the temperature at every interval and all the reading can be integrated with your restaurant management software that can give you all the data related to food safety in real-time. Besides this, you have to give the granular level of training to your employees that will be responsible for making sure haccp plan is adopted and followed before you dish out any delicacy for service.
Your restaurant has run afoul of food safety regulations, and you need to do something about it immediately.
A HACCP plan will make sure your restaurant meets all the statutory food safety regulations. Learn more about the plan right here.