Food Safety and HACCP
This domain tests whether you can apply HACCP thinking to everyday food handling, not just recite definitions. The EHAI Primary Food Safety exam expects you to recognise hazards, identify control points, set measurable limits, monitor them, correct failures, verify the system and keep records an inspector could follow. It also tests prerequisite hygiene - temperature control, cross-contamination, cleaning, personal hygiene and allergen separation - because HACCP sits on top of these.
HACCP's seven principles
- Conduct a hazard analysis: biological (bacteria, spores, viruses), chemical (cleaning chemicals, allergens), physical (glass, metal, pests).
- Determine CCPs with a decision tree, not guesswork.
- Set critical limits that can be measured, e.g. 75°C for cooked poultry, 5°C or below for chilled storage.
- Monitor at a stated frequency with named responsibility.
- State corrective action before failure occurs.
- Verify the plan works: review records, audit, test, observe.
- Document the plan and keep monitoring records.
Prerequisite temperature rules
The danger zone is 5–63°C. Hot hold at 63°C or above; cold hold at 5°C or below; freeze at -18°C or below. Cook high-risk foods to 75°C or an equivalent time-temperature combination. Cool cooked food from 63°C to 20°C within 2 hours and from 20°C to 5°C within a further 4 hours. Reheat to 75°C and never reheat more than once.
Worked example
A kitchen cooks chicken curry at 16:00 and chills it for tomorrow. Hazard: surviving spore-formers such as Clostridium perfringens multiply if cooling is slow. CCP: cooling. Critical limit: 63→20°C in 2 hours, then 20→5°C within 4 hours. Monitor with a probe thermometer at 2 and 6 hours, recording temperature, batch and initials. If the 2-hour reading is 30°C, the limit has failed: reheat to 75°C and serve immediately, or discard; record the corrective action. Verification is a weekly supervisor review of cooling logs, not the cook's hourly check.
Traps
Monitoring is not verification. A CCP is not every hygiene step. Allergens are chemical hazards requiring separation and labelling. Records must show the actual reading, time, initials and action taken. HACCP does not replace cleaning, training or pest control.