What Is HACCP?
HACCP is the food-safety system that catches hazards before they reach a plate — the logic every modern food code is built on. Here’s what it is, its seven principles, when a kitchen needs a formal plan, and the part that trips operators up: the records.
The definition
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating, and controlling food-safety hazards, developed with the FDA and used across the food industry.
The idea is proactive, not reactive. Instead of inspecting the finished food and reacting to a problem after it’s found, HACCP analyzes the whole process — receiving, storage, prep, cooking, holding, service — and controls the specific points where a hazard can be prevented. Hazards fall into three kinds: biological (bacteria, viruses), chemical (cleaning residue, allergens), and physical (glass, metal).
Even where a formal written plan isn’t required, modern food codes are built on HACCP — so every commercial kitchen already operates under its logic.
The seven principles of HACCP
A HACCP system is built on seven principles, in order — each one builds on the one before it:
- 01Hazard analysis — identify the biological, chemical, and physical hazards at each step.
- 02Identify critical control points (CCPs) — the steps where control actually prevents a hazard.
- 03Establish critical limits — the measurable line each CCP must stay within (a cook temperature, a hold temperature).
- 04Monitoring — check each CCP on a planned schedule to confirm it’s within its limit.
- 05Corrective actions — what you do when a CCP falls out of limit.
- 06Verification — confirm the system is working as designed.
- 07Recordkeeping and documentation — keep the records that prove all of the above happened.
Skipping or shortcutting any one leaves a gap that can fail an inspection. The seventh — recordkeeping — is where a working kitchen most often falls short.
Critical control points, in real numbers
The critical limits at a kitchen’s CCPs come straight from the food code — for example:
Cooking is a critical control point — the kill step verified at the moment of cooking, not logged on a schedule. The stages a kitchen logs on an ongoing basis are the holding and transition stages below.
The temperature readings a kitchen records
Cooking-to-order goes straight to the plate — it’s verified, not recorded on a log. The temperature readings a kitchen keeps on an ongoing basis are taken where food is received, held, or moved back through the danger zone:
- 01Receiving — the temperature of food at delivery, taken before it’s accepted.
- 02Hot holding — the reading on held food, kept at or above 135°F.
- 03Cold holding — the reading on held food, kept at or below 41°F.
- 04Reheating — the reading confirming previously cooked food reached 165°F before it’s held.
- 05Cooldown — the readings tracking cooked food through 135→70°F within 2 hours, then 70→41°F within 4 hours (the most-failed reading).
Each reading is recorded with a time, a temperature, and a corrective action if it’s out of limit — HACCP principles 4, 5, and 7 on one line.
When a kitchen needs a formal HACCP plan
Not every restaurant is required to write a formal HACCP plan — but many are, for specific processes:
- 01A formal plan is federally required for juice and seafood processors (FDA) and meat and poultry plants (USDA).
- 02At retail, the food code requires an agency-approved HACCP plan for specialized processes — reduced-oxygen packaging, curing, using additives to preserve food, and similar — before you can operate them.
- 03For everyone else, a full formal plan isn’t always mandated — but the monitoring, corrective actions, and records HACCP calls for still apply through the food code.
Where a plan is required for a specialized process, it must be approved by the agency that inspects you before you begin.
Who must align with HACCP
HACCP applies most formally to higher-risk operations, and to institutions serving vulnerable populations:
- 01Federally mandated processors — seafood and juice (FDA), meat and poultry (USDA).
- 02Retail operations running specialized processes — reduced-oxygen packaging, curing, using additives to preserve — which require an agency-approved plan.
- 03Institutional and high-volume kitchens — catering, hospitals, nursing homes, and childcare, which serve populations more susceptible to foodborne illness.
- 04K-12 school meal programs — every school in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs is required by the USDA to run a HACCP-based food-safety program.
Every other commercial kitchen still operates under HACCP-based food-code requirements — the monitoring, corrective actions, and records apply whether or not a formal plan is on file.
The principle operators miss: the records
Recordkeeping isn’t an afterthought to HACCP — it’s principle seven. A perfectly cooked, perfectly held kitchen still fails the test if it can’t show the monitoring and corrective actions happened. Temperature logs, corrective-action records, and verification records are the proof the system worked.
Where EvidLY fits
HACCP is proactive, not reactive — and so is EvidLY. Instead of scrambling to assemble records when someone asks for them, EvidLY captures the monitoring and documentation HACCP requires as the work happens — the temperature readings, the corrective actions, the verification records — dated and held in one place. So when a health inspector, an insurer, a corporate or franchise auditor, or a customer asks a food operation to prove its practices, the proof is already there. Fire safety first, food safety alongside: the whole compliance picture, and the seventh principle handled without a binder.
Book a Demo →HACCP and your food code.
Whether your kitchen answers to the national FDA Food Code or California’s CalCode, both are built on HACCP principles — the temperatures, monitoring, and records above are how you meet either one.
A kitchen’s food-safety obligations extend beyond the plate to sanitation systems — its grease trap, backflow prevention, and pest control.
HACCP — FAQ
What does HACCP stand for?
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — a proactive food-safety system that identifies and controls biological, chemical, and physical hazards before food reaches the consumer.
What are the seven principles of HACCP?
Hazard analysis; identify critical control points; establish critical limits; monitoring; corrective actions; verification; and recordkeeping and documentation.
Is a HACCP plan required for restaurants?
Not always. A formal plan is federally required for juice, seafood, and meat/poultry processors, and the food code requires an agency-approved plan for specialized retail processes (like reduced-oxygen packaging). Other kitchens still follow HACCP-based food-code requirements.
What records does HACCP require?
Recordkeeping is principle seven — monitoring records (like temperature logs), corrective-action records, and verification records that show the system was followed. These must be available at inspection.
EvidLY holds the temperature readings, corrective actions, and records HACCP requires — so the answer is ready before anyone asks for it: health inspector, insurer, auditor, or customer.
Ready to see it?
Book a 30-minute demo and see how EvidLY keeps every fire and food safety record ready — before anyone asks.
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