Running the centre
HACCP
HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) is the method a kitchen uses to identify what could make food unsafe, decide where to control it and keep a record showing that it does. In the EU, Regulation 852/2004 requires it of every food business beyond primary production.
Also known asHACCP system · HACCP plan · APPCC · food safety self-checks
What the rules require
Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 requires food business operators to put in place, implement and maintain permanent procedures based on seven principles: identify the hazards, identify the critical control points, set critical limits at those points, monitor them, set out corrective actions, verify that everything works, and keep documents and records in proportion to the size of the business. AESAN, Spain's food safety agency, points out that the prerequisites come first: good hygiene practice, traceability and staff training.
In Spain, Royal Decree 1021/2022 treats an establishment that prepares food and serves it to a group of consumers as retail, and among its examples of such groups it names the residence (Article 2(2)). Its Article 20 requires a permanent HACCP-based procedure with a person responsible for applying it, and allows it to be applied in a simplified form. The obligation falls on whoever has the kitchen under their control (Article 3 of the Regulation): the residence, if it cooks with its own staff, or the catering company that runs it. Allergens are one of the hazards that control has to cover, and the training of the people who cook is explained under food handler.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that HACCP is a document you commission once and file away. The Regulation requires it to be reviewed whenever the product, the process or any step of it changes (Article 5(2)), the documents describing it to be kept up to date, and the records proving it is applied to be kept. A new menu can be one of those changes.
Sources
Related terms
- AllergensAllergens are the substances that cause allergies or intolerances and that EU law requires to be declared: fourteen of them, from gluten to molluscs. A residence dining hall must be able to say which ones each dish contains, even when the food is served unpackaged.
- Food handlerA food handler is anyone whose job involves touching food while preparing, serving, storing or delivering it. In a residence dining hall that means the kitchen and serving staff, and whoever runs the kitchen has to make sure they are trained in food hygiene.