Haccp kitchen?

Sigma Force

Not sure what section to put this in but it is food related.
Just wondering what is looked for the have your kitchen Haccp approved?
Just a rough idea even. Do your worktops have to be stainless steel or marble? Or does it matter as long as they are clean and reasonably seamless?
Anything else they look for?

shinikins

Found a copy of the Food SAfety Authorities HACCP booklet online, but it doesn't give much info. Their website has some more info, but basically if your producing food for public consumption you need a fully HACCP complient kitchen, seemless flooring and wall coverings, steel worktops, all with clearance above the floor for ease of cleaning and must be movable(again for cleaning).

admiralofthefleet

and dont forget about your critical control points. temperature probes have to be calibrated once a year and you need certs to prove it

Acoshla

It all depends on what you're planning on producing there, hot foods, foods containing meat, baked goods, etc all have different guidelines.

You don't automatically have to have stainless steel worktops, again it depends on what you are producing. I personally don't have to have them, or seamless floor etc, I have a fitted kitchen with a regular worktop and a wooden floor, because for what I do I am registered as a domestic kitchen and so it has to fit into that guideline, so I have a regular oven etc. If I had a commercial oven or stainless steel units I would be into the commercial kitchen area and so would be inspected differently and have different guidelines.

Each county's EHO's interpret the rules differently but all have the same guideline, so the best thing to do is contact your local Environmental Health Officer, ask them, and they will come and inspect your kitchen if you plan to go ahead with it.

Corsendonk

Sigma Force wrote: »

Not sure what section to put this in but it is food related.
Just wondering what is looked for the have your kitchen Haccp approved?
Just a rough idea even. Do your worktops have to be stainless steel or marble? Or does it matter as long as they are clean and reasonably seamless?
Anything else they look for?

You should be able to get a copy of the guidelines for your area of food prep from the FSAI if you ring them. That should list the different surfaces expected, build standard etc.

Your HACCP deals with your record keeping and critical control points(CCPs) and you want as few of them as possible. So good practices and procedures should be able to work your CCPs down to as little as possible. Old style HACCP nearly put a CCP on everything and buried people under a mountain of paper. I honestly think the people who wrote the old HACCP plans got paided per CCP.

Some takeaways I have been in have washing hands as a CCP that should be a pre-requsite, temp control is always a CCP because its a kill point. A member of staff will also have to undergo HACCP training(FAS might be able to help there) so they have an understanding of it and have the ability to update the plan as your business changes. Food safety training will have to be done by a staff member who will inturn train all staff members in food safety and retrain yearly and any new starters. The FSAI should be able to point you in the direction of the necessary courses.

If you start a food business you have to ring the local EHO office to register anyway and they should give you reg number which will be quoted on all inspections by them. As said by previous posters each EHO has their own pet peeves but if you have the necessary training you have a better chance to argue your point of view if they are just picky.

Voltex

...just to add, that HACCP is basically looking at what you are doing, addressing the hazards and attributing a relevent level of risk, and then doing something about the hazard.

You cant have a HACCP passed kitchen per se. To have an effective HACCP plan in place you need to have an appropriate pre-requisite program (PRP) running. This allows a HACCP study to be undertakin. The PRP creates the enviroment that facillitates a HACCP study.

So to me at least you are looking for a kitchen suitable for the production of food.