The 7 HACCP principles explained with concrete examples

“Implement procedures based on HACCP principles”: that is the obligation regulation (EC) no. 852/2004 places on every food-business operator since 2006. You still need to know what those famous principles cover. Here are the 7 Codex Alimentarius principles, translated one by one into concrete actions for a kitchen, a production room or a food shop.

Before the principles: three preparatory jobs

The full Codex method counts 12 steps; the first five prepare the ground. Scaled to a direct-service establishment, they boil down to three jobs:

1. Assemble the team: in a very small business, often the owner plus the head of production or the chef — the point is not to work alone, because the people running the stations know the real weak spots.
2. Describe products and users: what you make, how it is consumed, and by whom — a caterer delivering to care homes does not run the same analysis as a city-centre kebab shop.
3. Draw the process diagrams: from goods-in to service, step by step, for each product family — then walk the floor to check the diagram matches reality.

With that done, the 7 principles follow logically.

Principle 1 — Analyse the hazards

For each step of the diagram, list the reasonably foreseeable hazards:

• biological: pathogenic bacteria (salmonella, listeria, staphylococci…), viruses, parasites — growth when the cold chain breaks, survival when cooking is insufficient, raw/cooked cross-contamination;
• chemical: cleaning-product residues, degraded frying oils, and allergens, the most frequent chemical hazard in catering;
• physical: glass, metal, bones, plastic, personal items.

You do not have to reinvent this analysis: the good-hygiene-practice guide (GBPH) for your sector already contains most of it. Your job is to adapt it to your products and premises.

Principle 2 — Determine the critical control points (CCPs)

A CCP is a step where losing control can make the product dangerous and where a measurable check is possible. Classic examples in direct service: cooking (destroying pathogens), rapid cooling (limiting growth), hot or cold holding.

The most widespread mistake is putting CCPs everywhere. Whatever is managed by good hygiene practice (cleaning, hand hygiene, storage) does not need to be a CCP. A study by Panisello and Quantick published in 2001 in Food Control, “Technical barriers to Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)”, pinpoints exactly this flaw among recurring technical obstacles: plans overloaded with false CCPs that dilute monitoring and demoralise teams.

Principle 3 — Set critical limits

For each CCP, a measurable value separates acceptable from unacceptable: a core cooking temperature, a cooling time/temperature couple, a maximum cold-room temperature, a maximum delay between production and service. The limit must be checkable in production with your instruments — a calibrated probe thermometer beats an unverifiable theoretical target.

Principle 4 — Monitor

Monitoring answers four questions: who measures, what, when, and where it is recorded. In practice: cold-room readings at the start of the shift, core temperature at the end of cooking for sensitive products, start and end times of rapid cooling runs. The golden rule: simple sheets, filled in as the action happens — never reconstructed afterwards.

Principle 5 — Plan corrective actions

What happens when a limit is exceeded? The answer must be written in advance: extend cooking and re-measure, discard the product, block the lot, call the refrigeration engineer and move the foods. Every incident goes on a non-conformity form: it is proof your system reacts, not that it is failing. A binder showing zero non-conformities over three years is not a good sign to an inspector — it is the sign nothing gets recorded.

Principle 6 — Verify

Verification takes a step back: periodic review of the records by the person in charge, thermometer calibration, microbiological self-testing where the activity justifies it (it is not systematically required in direct service), and a review of the plan at every change of menu, equipment or supplier. This is what separates a living system from a dead binder.

Principle 7 — Document

The last, transversal principle: keep the documents (procedures, hazard analysis, cleaning schedule) and the records (logs, goods-in checks, non-conformity forms, training evidence). They are your proof of control during a DDPP inspection — and the first thing requested, as our article on preparing for the DDPP inspection explains.

Recap: the 7 principles at a glance

Principle	Question it answers	Concrete example
1. Hazard analysis	What can make my product dangerous?	Bacterial growth during slow cooling
2. CCPs	Where must I absolutely keep control?	Cooking, rapid cooling, holding temperatures
3. Critical limits	Which value separates safe from dangerous?	Core temperature, time/temperature couple
4. Monitoring	Who measures what, and when?	Cold-room readings at shift start
5. Corrective actions	What do we do when a limit is exceeded?	Extend cooking, discard, block the lot
6. Verification	Does the system really work?	Monthly records review, calibration
7. Documentation	Can I prove it?	Up-to-date plan, dated records

Flexible application in small businesses

HACCP formality was designed for industry; EU regulation explicitly allows a proportionate application in small businesses, notably through validated good-hygiene-practice guides. That is flexibility, not exemption: the obligation of result — safe food — stands in full. The study by Violaris, Bridges and Bridges published in 2008 in Food Control, “Small businesses – Big risks”, is a useful reminder: small businesses concentrate a large share of sanitary risk precisely because they under-invest in the method. The 7 principles, even in their simple form, remain your best protection — and your customers’.

These principles do not live in isolation: they form the second pillar of your sanitary control plan, between good hygiene practice and traceability. For the full assembly, see our guide to writing your sanitary control plan; and if your team needs upskilling, the 14-hour food-hygiene training covers exactly these fundamentals.

Take action

Take your most sensitive process diagram and run the 7 principles over it this week: you will have the skeleton of your HACCP procedures. For the full regulatory frame, the step-by-step approach and the frequent questions, head to our page HACCP and the sanitary control plan — the free guide walks you through it stage by stage.