A step in a food process where control is essential to prevent, eliminate or reduce a food safety hazard to an acceptable level.
A control point is any step where a hazard can be controlled. A critical control point is a step where control is essential because there is no later opportunity to make the food safe.
You carry out a hazard analysis of each process step and apply a decision process, often a decision tree, to work out where control is essential to keep food safe.
Even a small cafe controls the same critical steps, such as cooking, cooling and cold holding. Standard 3.2.2A expects certain businesses to substantiate control of these key steps.
There is no set number. A business should have as many CCPs as its hazard analysis identifies, and no more, so monitoring stays focused on the steps that genuinely control safety.
A predefined corrective action must be taken, such as continuing to cook, re-chilling or discarding the food, and the event must be recorded.