What is HACCP?
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. Its roots go back to the 1960s, when a food-safety approach was developed for NASA's space missions. The core idea is simple: food is kept safe not by testing the product once it is finished, but by controlling the risky points inside the process in advance.
In Türkiye, the Food Hygiene Regulation, aligned with EU law, requires food businesses to put in place procedures based on HACCP principles. ISO 22000 is a voluntary management-system certification that incorporates those principles; the two are not the same thing.
The 7 principles of HACCP
- 1Hazard analysis: Identify biological, chemical and physical hazards at every step.
- 2Identify critical control points: The steps where a hazard can be prevented or reduced to a safe level.
- 3Set critical limits: A measurable limit (temperature, time) for each control point.
- 4Monitoring: How, how often and by whom each limit is measured.
- 5Corrective actions: What to do when a limit is breached, written down in advance.
- 6Verification: Periodic checks that the system actually works.
- 7Record-keeping: Documenting every measurement and correction.
Typical control points in a restaurant kitchen
| Step | Hazard | Common reference limit |
|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Broken cold chain | Chilled goods at 5°C or below |
| Cold holding | Bacterial growth | 0–5°C |
| Cooking | Pathogens surviving | Core temperature of 75°C |
| Hot holding | Bacterial growth | 63°C or above |
| Cooling | Time in the danger zone | Cooked food brought quickly below 5°C |
These are widely used reference values; your HACCP plan should set them according to the regulations in force and the product.
Putting a HACCP plan into practice
- Start from the menu: Map each dish from receiving to service.
- Keep the forms simple: A temperature log should take 30 seconds during a shift; complicated forms don't get filled in.
- Name the owner: One person, and one backup, for each control point.
- Calibrate: Check thermometers regularly.
Clean and dirty separation in the kitchen layout is the physical foundation of HACCP; we cover it in our commercial kitchen design guide.
HACCP is a training subject
The best HACCP plan stays on paper if the team doesn't understand why it matters. A temperature log should be taught as guest safety, not as an inspection form. Our kitchen team training builds HACCP principles into the daily shift routine; the 90-day kitchen team training plan is an example of that process.
