Food Safety Programmes, Records and Corrective Actions
A food safety programme is a documented system that identifies hazards, sets controls, and proves they are working. Candidates must understand the logic of a Food Control Plan: identify hazards, determine control measures and critical limits, monitor them, record the results, and take corrective action when a limit is breached.
Know what must be recorded: temperature checks (fridge, freezer, cooking, reheating, holding), cleaning and sanitising schedules, pest control visits, staff training, supplier approvals, and corrective actions. Records must be accurate, legible, dated, signed and kept for the required period (commonly 4 years for some records, but follow your plan). Falsifying records is a serious breach.
Understand corrective action: when a control fails (e.g. fridge reads 9 °C), you must (1) stop or isolate affected food, (2) decide whether it is safe (using time/temperature evidence), (3) fix the cause, (4) record what was done, and (5) review to prevent recurrence. Corrective action is not just 'turn the fridge down' - it includes deciding the fate of the food and documenting it.
Know the difference between monitoring (routine checks), verification (confirming the system works, e.g. calibration, audits, record review) and validation (evidence that the controls actually control the hazard).
Traps: candidates confuse monitoring with verification, or think a corrective action is complete once the equipment is fixed. Watch for 'just discard the food' without investigating the cause, and for records that are incomplete or unsigned.
Worked example: Fridge at 9 °C for an unknown time. Isolate food, check time/temperature history, discard high-risk food if evidence is lacking, repair the fridge, record the corrective action, and review monitoring frequency.