Food Safety

HACCP plan: how to build one step by step

By Claudia · · 6 min read

Quality team reviewing the HACCP plan on the plant floor with a tablet and clipboard

HACCP plan: how to build one step by step

If you work in the food industry, the HACCP plan is, without a doubt, one of the fundamental pillars of your food safety management system. It's a preventive tool that lets you identify, assess and control the hazards that could compromise food safety before the product reaches the consumer. In this article we explain what it is, why it's mandatory, and how to build one correctly, step by step, without leaving any gaps.

What a HACCP plan is and why it's mandatory

The HACCP system (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is a systematic, science-based approach to guaranteeing food safety. Unlike reactive controls, HACCP acts proactively: it catches risks before they turn into a real problem.

In the European Union, HACCP is a legal requirement under Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs (Regulation [EC] 852/2004, 2004), which requires all food business operators to put in place, implement and maintain one or more permanent procedures based on HACCP principles. Failing to comply with this regulation can lead to penalties, product recalls and even the temporary closure of the establishment.

What's more, many internationally recognized private standards — such as BRC, IFS or FSSC 22000 — also require a solid, documented HACCP system as the foundation of the food safety management system. In short, a HACCP plan isn't optional: it's a legal obligation and a guarantee of competitiveness.

The 7 principles of HACCP

HACCP in the food industry is built around seven universally recognized principles, which serve as the basis both for building the plan and for maintaining it over time:

1. Conduct a hazard analysis. Identify every physical, chemical, biological and allergen hazard that could appear at each stage of the production process, assessing its likelihood and severity.

2. Determine the Critical Control Points (CCPs). A CCP is a stage in the process where a control measure can be applied that's essential to prevent, eliminate or reduce a hazard to an acceptable level.

3. Establish critical limits. For each CCP, set maximum or minimum values — temperature, pH, time, etc. — that separate what's acceptable from what isn't.

4. Establish a monitoring system. Define how, when and who will take measurements or checks at each CCP to catch any deviation from the critical limit in real time.

5. Establish corrective actions. When monitoring detects that a CCP is out of control, there need to be predefined actions to correct the situation and manage the affected product.

6. Establish verification procedures. This means periodically confirming that the HACCP system is working effectively through internal audits, additional testing or record reviews.

7. Establish a documentation and record-keeping system. All information about the plan — flow diagrams, hazard analyses, controls, deviations — must be documented, and records must be kept for the legally required period.

How to build a HACCP plan step by step

Before applying the seven principles, you need to complete a series of preliminary steps that lay the groundwork for the system. Here's a complete, practical guide, whether you're looking for a HACCP plan example for reference or building your own from scratch.

Step 1: Form the HACCP team. Bring together people with multidisciplinary knowledge: production, quality, maintenance, logistics. A diversity of perspectives enriches the analysis and helps avoid blind spots.

Step 2: Describe the product and its intended use. Document the food's characteristics — composition, pH, water activity, method of preservation — and define who will consume it. A product intended for vulnerable populations requires stricter controls.

Step 3: Build the flow diagram. Map out every stage of the process visually, from raw material receiving through to distribution. The diagram should be verified on site to make sure it reflects what actually happens on the plant floor.

Step 4: Apply the 7 principles. With the diagram validated, the team analyzes each stage according to the principles described above. For each CCP identified, a control sheet is filled out capturing the hazard, the critical limit, the monitoring method, the frequency, the person responsible, and the corrective actions.

Step 5: Review and update the plan. A HACCP plan isn't a static document. It should be reviewed whenever a process, a supplier, a formulation changes, or when a new threat is detected. The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) (AESAN, n.d.) provides guides and support materials to help companies implement and update these systems.

Step 6: Train staff. Even the best HACCP plan in the world is useless if the people working on the plant floor don't know it or don't apply it correctly. Ongoing training is key to making the system work in practice.

Step 7: Audit the system regularly. Internal audits let you catch deviations, correct them, and demonstrate the plan's effectiveness to customers and inspectors. Having solid, well-organized evidence makes all the difference.

The importance of traceability also plays an essential role in HACCP, since it lets you trace the origin of any issue and act quickly in the event of a possible food safety alert.

How to keep HACCP records up to date with Solved

One of the most critical — and most time-consuming — aspects of any HACCP plan is record management. Writing down temperatures on paper, filing forms in physical folders, or consolidating data in spreadsheets doesn't just eat up resources — it also creates errors, duplication and makes it hard to prove control during an audit.

Solved is the quality software built specifically for the food industry that digitizes and automates the entire documentation and record-keeping process for HACCP. With Solved you can log checks in real time from any device, set up automatic alerts when a value exceeds the critical limit, and generate audit-ready reports in seconds.

The platform also centralizes all the information: product spec sheets, flow diagrams, monitoring records, non-conformities, corrective actions and verifications. This gives the quality team a complete view of the system at all times and lets them act quickly on any deviation.

Moving from paper to digital isn't just about convenience — it's a real competitive advantage. Companies working with Solved significantly cut the time spent on document management and increase the reliability of their data, which translates into faster audits, fewer issues, and greater trust from customers and distributors.

If you want to see how Solved can help you keep your HACCP plan error-free and always up to date, request a free demo and see for yourself.

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