A Complete Guide To HACCP Food Safety

If you’re looking to implement a HACCP food safety program, this series of Back Burner posts will help you get started.  If you’re looking for ways to improve your existing food safety program, this is also a great place to start.  Food safety is a critical part of your food service business, and over the years, HACCP has proven itself to be one of the most effective ways to ensure your customers eat good food in...

Food Safety Tips: Prerequisite Programs

Those of you familiar with the HACCP approach to food safety know that HACCP is just one part of the food safety puzzle in your restaurant.  It’s very good at managing cooking and holding temperatures for food product, which should be considered the first line of defense against pathogens that could sicken customers.  But HACCP also relies heavily on what it calls...

How To Calibrate A Thermometer

Think of a good thermometer as the crescent wrench of your food safety program.  Without it, you have no idea what the temperature of your food products are, either when you cook them or when you store them.  And that means you can’t tighten the bolts of your...

Color Code Your Food Safety Program

Bacteria, contaminants, and pathogens are all the enemies of your restaurant’s kitchen.  It’s a battle you fight every day.  The first line of defense is controlling the growth of pathogens that could make your customers sick.  That is best accomplished through a robust HACCP program.  Unfortunately, as effective...

September Is National Food Safety Education Month

Is your restaurant participating?  From the NFSEM site: “The National Restaurant Association encourages restaurant and foodservice operators to begin planning for the 15th annual National Food Safety Education Month. This month-long campaign is held every September and focuses on the importance of food safety education for the restaurant and foodservice...

HACCP Principle 7 – Keep Good Records

Of course, all the work you’ve put into the first 6 principles of HACCP won’t do you any good at all if you don’t have accurate records.  In the event that your business is implicated in a food borne illness outbreak, all of your HACCP efforts only help protect you if you have clear, accurate records of your food preparation process, and you are able to prove...

HACCP Principle 6 – Ongoing Verification

Now we are getting into the multiple levels of control that make a HACCP program so effective.  Level 1 is monitoring: people who are directly involved with the food product at the Critical Control Point checking to make sure ...

HACCP Principle 5: Develop Corrective Actions

So now you have CCPs, Critical Limits, and monitoring procedures for your budding HACCP program.  You know what you are going to control, where you are going...

HACCP Principle 4 – Establish Monitoring Procedures

Now that you’ve established your Critical Control Points and Critical Limits for every preparation process and every menu item in your restaurant, it’s time to monitor.  Limits and CCPs don’t do any good if there’s no enforcement.  The first...

HACCP Principle 3: Set Critical Limits

Every CCP you identified by grouping menu items into processes now must have a critical limit set for it in order to become an official part of your HACCP program.  The FDA’s Food Code and your local Board of Health have...