Food safety plan, Food Safety Glossary

A written plan that sets out the food safety hazards a business faces and the control measures used to manage them. A food safety plan is a document that describes how a food business keeps its food safe. It records the hazards that could occur across the business's processes, the control measures put in place at each step, and how those controls are monitored, corrected and recorded. It is built on HACCP principles, so it works through hazard analysis, control measures, critical limits, monitoring, corrective action, verification and record keeping. The term food safety plan is often used interchangeably with food safety program, but a plan can also be a simpler document used by a business that is not legally required to hold a full program. In every case the purpose is the same: to set out, in writing, what could make the food unsafe and exactly how the business prevents, eliminates or reduces each of those hazards. In Australia a documented food safety program is required under Standard 3.2.1 in some states and territories, usually for higher risk activities such as serving vulnerable persons. Many other businesses use a food safety plan or the food safety management tools introduced by Standard 3.2.2A to structure their controls even when a full program is not mandatory. A workable plan for a cafe or restaurant is usually short and practical. It lists the menu's high risk steps, sets the critical limits taken from the Food Standards Code, names who monitors each step and how often, states the corrective action for each control, and points to the temperature logs and cleaning records that provide the evidence. A Perth cafe writes a two page food safety plan covering receipt, cold storage, cooking, cooling and display. Each step lists the hazard, the control, the limit such as cold holding at or below 5 degrees Celsius, who checks it and what to do if it fails, giving staff a single reference for keeping food safe.