How to develop a food safety plan

Food business is quite sensitive. Even your slightest mistake can cost your customers their health and you can lose your business! To ensure safety of their customers, food establishments have to follow certain guidelines, like a food safety plan.

As per the US FDA, a food safety plan is a set of primary documents in a preventive controlsfood safety system to identify the food safety hazards , consequently minimizing the risk of foodborne illness or injury. It prescribes the measures and methods to be followed by the operators of the food establishments during manufacturing, processing , packing and holding food.

These guidelines ensure to reduce the risk of any food safety hazard . Food safety plans have to be in written.

Now, who develops food safety plans ? Well, there are preventive controls qualified individual (PCQI) to help you with developing a food safety plan. As per the FDA, a PCQI is a person with the education, training, or experience (or a combination of these) to develop and apply a food safety system .
With everything online these days, the US FDA has come with an e-tool Food Safety Plan Builder (FSPB) to help food establishment owners design their own food safety plans .

As per the US FDA, the Food Safety Plan Builder assists the users through the following-
1. Facility Information
2. Preliminary Steps
3. Good manufacturing practices and prerequisite programs
4. Hazard Analysis & Preventive Controls Determination
5. Process Preventive Controls
6. Food Allergen Preventive Controls
7. Sanitation Preventive Controls
8. Supply-Chain Preventive Controls
9. Recall Plan
10. Reanalysis of Food Safety Plan
11. Food Safety Plan Report
12. Signature
13. Recordkeeping Procedures
14. Important Contacts
15. Supporting Documents