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HACCP Plan Template for Food Manufacturers

A HACCP plan is the document an auditor reads first. This template walks the logical order: team, product description, flow diagram, hazard analysis, CCPs, critical limits, monitoring, corrective action and verification.

Fill in

Company name

Plant location

Product name

Intended use and consumer

Packaging, storage and distribution

HACCP team members

Process steps (flow diagram in words)

CCP 1 step and hazard

CCP 1 critical limit

CCP 2 step and hazard

CCP 2 critical limit

Prepared by

Plan date

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HACCP Plan Template

HACCP Plan

Company: Riverbend Foods Ltd Site: Plant 2, Dayton Product: Cooked chicken breast strips, vacuum packed Plan date: 2026-10-20 Prepared by: A. Morgan, Food Safety Manager

1. HACCP team

Food safety manager (lead), production supervisor, maintenance lead, QA technician, sanitation lead

2. Product description and intended use

Product: Cooked chicken breast strips, vacuum packed Intended use and consumer: Ready to eat after reheating, general public including vulnerable groups Packaging, storage and distribution: Vacuum pouch, chilled 0 to 4 C, 28 day code life

3. Process flow

Receive raw chicken > chilled storage > trim > marinate > cook > chill > slice > vacuum pack > metal detect > chill storage > dispatch

The flow diagram was verified on the production floor on the plan date.

4. Hazard analysis summary

Process step	Hazard (B, C, P, A)	Significant?	Basis	Control measure
Receiving	B: pathogens on raw material	Yes	Raw poultry commonly carries Salmonella	Supplier approval, receiving temperature check, controlled by cook step
Cook	B: pathogen survival	Yes	Lethality step	Time and temperature, see CCP 1
Slice and pack	B: post-cook recontamination	Yes	Listeria in the RTE environment	Sanitation SSOP, environmental monitoring
Metal detect	P: metal fragments	Yes	Blades, wear parts	Detector, see CCP 2
Packaging	A: undeclared allergen	Yes	Label mix-up risk	Label verification at line start (prerequisite program)

5. CCP management table

CCP	Critical limit	Monitoring (what, how, frequency, who)	Corrective action	Verification	Records
Cook: survival of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes	Core temperature at least 74 C (165 F) instantaneous, per validated process	Core temperature probe, every batch, cook operator	Hold and re-cook or reject product back to last good check; assess cause	Daily record review, weekly thermometer calibration, annual validation	Cook log, calibration log
Metal detection: physical hazard from metal fragments	Detect and reject test pieces: 2.0 mm ferrous, 2.5 mm non-ferrous, 3.0 mm stainless in the product	Test pieces at start, hourly, and end of run, line operator	Hold product since last good test, re-run through detector, investigate	Weekly supervisor review, annual detector service	Metal detector log

6. Verification and review

The plan is reviewed at least once a year and whenever a product, ingredient, process step, equipment or customer requirement changes. Validation evidence for each critical limit is kept with the plan.

Approvals

Food safety manager / Date

Plant manager / Date

Quality director / Date

A starting point built on the Codex HACCP principles and the structure used by USDA FSIS and FDA. Your plan must reflect your own hazard analysis, validated critical limits and regulator or customer scheme (SQF, BRCGS, FSSC 22000). Not legal advice.

Link your HACCP records to ERP lots

Optional review of how CCP logs, lot numbers and QA holds could connect inside your ERP.

Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.

How to use the template

Fill in the fields for one product or one product family that shares a process. Enter your two most important CCPs, edit the hazard analysis rows to match your real process, then export to PDF or Word and add the validation documents behind each critical limit. Make one plan per process category, not one giant plan for the whole site. Walk the flow diagram on the floor before you sign it, because the most common finding is a diagram that does not match what operators really do.

Start with a team that includes someone who runs the line
Describe the product exactly as it ships
Verify the flow diagram on site
Keep validation evidence next to each critical limit

The seven principles behind the layout

The structure follows the seven Codex HACCP principles: conduct a hazard analysis, determine CCPs, establish critical limits, establish monitoring, establish corrective actions, establish verification and keep records. Hazards are grouped as biological, chemical, physical and allergen. A control measure becomes a CCP only when it is the step where the hazard is prevented, eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level and a measurable limit exists. Everything else is managed through prerequisite programs such as sanitation, allergen control, supplier approval and pest control.

Reading the CCP table

Each row answers five questions an auditor will ask: what is the limit, how is it measured, how often, who does it and what happens when it fails. Critical limits must be measurable and tied to validation, such as a cook time and temperature that achieves a stated log reduction. Corrective action should cover both the product made since the last good check and the cause. Verification is different from monitoring: it checks that monitoring works, through record review, instrument calibration and periodic sampling.

Common mistakes

Too many CCPs is a frequent error, which dilutes attention and makes records unmanageable. Critical limits copied from a textbook with no validation are another. Plans are also often written once and never reassessed after a new ingredient, new line or new customer requirement. Finally, many sites keep the plan on paper while ERP lot records tell a different story. Connecting cook logs, lot numbers and QA holds in your ERP or MES makes the CCP records and the traceability records agree.

Do not turn every prerequisite into a CCP
Validate limits with scientific or in-plant evidence
Reassess after any change
Align plan records with ERP lot and hold status

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a HACCP plan the same as a food safety plan?

Not exactly. In the US, FSMA preventive controls rules call for a food safety plan that includes a hazard analysis and preventive controls, which can include CCPs, sanitation, allergen and supply-chain controls. A HACCP plan is the Codex based format used by meat, poultry, seafood, juice and many certification schemes.

How many CCPs should a plan have?

As few as the hazard analysis justifies. A cooked product might have a cook CCP and a metal detection CCP, while many sites control other hazards through prerequisite programs. If everything is a CCP, the real ones get lost.

Who must be on the HACCP team?

A multidisciplinary group: someone with food safety training, production, maintenance, quality and sanitation knowledge. The lead should be trained in HACCP, and outside experts can help where in-house knowledge is thin.

How often must the plan be reviewed?

At least once a year, and whenever something changes: a new ingredient, supplier, process step, equipment, recall or customer complaint trend. Record the review even if no changes were needed.

If your CCP logs, lot numbers and QA holds live in separate systems, we can help bring them into your ERP so a HACCP record can be pulled by lot in minutes.

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