2.5 A food safety plan

What a plan is

A food safety plan (FSP) is the only sure way to know the food you serve is safe. There are two kinds. A recipe-based plan follows one dish. A process-based plan follows a method shared by several dishes, which suits a station or a menu that changes often, such as daily specials; grilling pork chops and chicken breasts, for example, follow much the same process. Both kinds are built in the same seven steps.

A worked example: a beef stew. The recipe uses 2.5 kg of pre-cooked stewing beef, a can each of stew base, consommé and gravy, two packs of frozen vegetables, a seasoning packet and 5 liters of water. The written method has five stages: preparing, cooking, serving and holding, cooling, and reheating. As first written, it only says to simmer for 30 minutes, store leftovers covered in the cooler and reheat "until steaming".

Step 1: find the hazards

Go through the menu and pick out every item that is a PHF or contains one. For each, follow the food from delivery to plate, using the recipe or a flow chart. Then ask:

• Does the food pass through the danger zone — is it cooked then cooled, held hot, or reheated? Most food poisoning involves food heated and then cooled through that zone.
• Do workers handle it a lot, so a sick worker could contaminate it?
• After cooking, could raw food or dirty equipment contaminate it?

Any "yes" means a hazard to control. Beef stew is a PHF. Its hazards are germs in the raw ingredients, and germs that survive cooking or get in afterwards and then grow if the stew is left at the wrong temperature.

Step 2: mark the critical control points

Next, find the steps where each hazard is best controlled. These are the critical control points: the "kill step", where cooking kills bacteria, or the steps where hot holding or fast cooling stop them growing. Four steps are control points in every recipe: cooking, cooling, hot holding and reheating. For ready-to-eat food such as salads and sandwiches, every step where hands touch the food is one too. Underline or highlight these steps on the recipe. In the stew, the cooking, serving and holding, cooling and reheating stages are all control points.

Step 3: set critical limits

For each control point, set the limit: lowest cooking temperature and time, longest cooling time, lowest holding temperature and so on. Most limits can be written straight onto the recipe card. For the stew, these are the limits to write in:

• Cooking: the stew must reach 74°C (165°F) or more, and stay there 15 seconds or longer.
• Holding: keep it at 60°C (140°F) or hotter.
  ▶ Watch
• Cooling: cool in shallow pans no deeper than 5 cm (2 in.), stirring often, reaching 20°C within 2 hours and 4°C within the next 4 hours.
  ▶ Watch
• Reheating: within 2 hours, the center must reach 74°C or more and stay there 15 seconds or longer. Reheat once only.

Step 4: check the limits

A limit only works if someone checks it. Where the limit is a temperature, measure the food's internal temperature while cooking, cooling or holding. Where the limit is something a worker does, train them first, then watch regularly that they keep doing it right. Make checking part of each person's job description.

Step 5: plan the fixes

When a limit is missed, workers must already know the corrective action. Examples include:

• refusing an unacceptable delivery
• turning down a cooler's thermostat
• recooking or reheating food (once only)
• changing how the food is handled
• throwing it away

Fix problems at once, and remember the rule: "If in doubt, throw it out!"

For the stew, the fixes are simple:

• Keep cooking until it reaches the limit.
• Turn up the holding unit's thermostat if the stew falls below 60°C.
• Change the cooling method, or discard the stew, if it does not cool in time.
• Keep heating if a reheat falls short.

The finished plan also lists safety steps around the recipe. On receiving, the beef must be below 4°C, in sound packaging and from an approved supplier, or it is refused. It goes straight into the cooler. During preparation:

• Use a thermometer that has been cleaned and sanitized.
• Wash your hands before you handle food, after raw food and after any interruption.
• Clean and sanitize tools before and after use.
• Put ingredients back in the fridge if work stops.

A process-based example

A process plan for a hot entrée station can cover dishes such as chicken cacciatore, beef bourguignon and turkey tetrazzini. For each stage it names the hazard, the control, the check and the action.

A food safety plan for a hot entrée station.

Steps 6 and 7: records and review

Keep records of every check and every corrective action. Reading them regularly shows quickly whether the controls work and whether staff handle food correctly; if they show a problem, fix it straight away.

At least once a year, review the whole plan. Ask whether there are new dishes, changed recipes or changed preparation steps; any "yes" probably means the plan needs updating. It is also wise to confirm with the local health inspector that the plan is suitable.