HACCP in practice, not in theory
By Vimal Bhaya, Founder and Lead Systems Architect · Last reviewed 25 October 2026
This is a continuation of Temperature logs and inspections, an 8-part tutorial. You are on part 7 of 8.
Yes, HACCP monitors temperature checks. HACCP finds the steps where food can become unsafe, sets a limit for each, checks it every time, and records what you did when a check failed. In a kitchen, most of those steps are temperatures: cold holding at 41°F (5°C) or colder, cooking, cooling, and hot holding at 135°F (57°C) or hotter.
Most US restaurants do not need a written HACCP plan. The FDA Food Code asks for one only for special processes, such as reduced oxygen packaging, curing or smoking. School kitchens do need one: each must run a food safety program that follows HACCP principles, with a written plan.
HACCP is seven steps, and the last four happen every day
HACCP stands for hazard analysis and critical control points. FDA's manual for restaurants and retail lists seven principles. In plain words:
- Hazard analysis. Work out what could make the food unsafe, such as bacteria growing in food left warm.
- Critical control points. Find the steps where you can stop it, such as cold holding or cooking.
- Critical limits. Set the number that separates safe from unsafe at each step, such as 41°F (5°C).
- Monitoring. Decide who checks, how, and how often.
- Corrective actions. Decide in advance what to do when a check fails.
- Verification. Have someone else confirm the checks are happening and the thermometers are right.
- Records. Write it all down.
Steps 1 to 3 are done once, on paper. Steps 4 to 7 happen on every shift, and that is where a HACCP plan works or fails.
In a kitchen, most critical control points are temperatures
FDA's manual sorts menu items by how many times they pass through the danger zone, 41°F to 135°F (5°C to 57°C). School kitchens use the same three groups, called the process approach.
| Process | The steps | Where temperature is controlled |
|---|---|---|
| No cook, such as salads and sandwiches | Receive, store, prepare, hold, serve | Cold holding, or time instead of temperature |
| Same-day service, such as burgers and grilled chicken | Receive, store, prepare, cook, hold, serve | Cooking; hot holding, or time instead |
| Complex, such as soups and chili made ahead | Receive, store, prepare, cook, cool, reheat, hot hold, serve | Cooking; cooling; reheating; hot and cold holding |
The limits for each step are in cold holding, hot holding and the danger zone.
A cold holding control point, filled in
This is HACCP for one step: potato salad on a salad bar, FDA's example for cold holding. The limits come from FDA's manual; the corrective action follows the Institute of Child Nutrition's steps for school kitchens.
| HACCP part | What it says |
|---|---|
| Hazard | Bacteria growing in food held warm |
| Critical control point | Cold holding |
| Critical limit | 41°F (5°C) or colder, in the food. FDA suggests a lower target as well, so a trend shows before the limit is crossed |
| Monitoring | Probe the food at times you set, close enough together to catch a problem in time. Write down the reading, the time and your initials |
| Corrective action | If the last good reading was within 2 hours, chill the food fast. If longer, or nobody knows, throw it out. Repair or reset the cooler before food goes back in. Write down what you did |
| Verification | A manager reviews the temperature logs, for example weekly, and checks that the thermometers read true |
| Records | The log, every corrective action, and the manager's review |
The monitoring row is the monitoring system. The rows under it are what make the readings count. How often to check is covered in how often to log fridge and freezer temperatures.
Most restaurants do not need a written HACCP plan, but schools and food plants do
- Restaurants and retail: usually voluntary. FDA's manual says record keeping "is voluntary in most retail and food service operations". The Food Code's temperature rules apply either way.
- Special processes: a plan is required. The Food Code asks for a variance and a HACCP plan before you smoke or cure food to preserve it, pack food in reduced oxygen packaging, sprout seeds, keep live shellfish in a display tank, or add ingredients such as vinegar so food no longer needs temperature control.
- Schools: required. Each school food authority must run a food safety program that follows HACCP principles, with a written plan for each school.
- Food plants: required. Meat, poultry, seafood and juice plants run HACCP plans under federal rules, and most other food plants run preventive controls. Their record rules are in how long to keep temperature logs.
In practice, HACCP breaks at the daily steps
The plan on the office wall is rarely the problem. These are the places it breaks in a real kitchen:
- Checks written later. A log filled in at the end of a shift monitors nothing. See pencil whipping.
- No corrective action on the record. A high reading with nothing beside it looks ignored, even when someone fixed it. See automated logging and corrective-action records.
- Nobody verifies. If no manager reads the log, nobody knows the checks have stopped. See who is responsible for temperature logs.
- Cooling is not recorded. Cooling is a priority item, and hard to prove after the fact.
One health inspector put the cooling point like this:
"Everything above 41 degrees F may not be a temperature violation. It could be a cooling violation."
r/healthinspector
In other words, warm food may be food that is cooling. Then the question is whether the cooling log shows it getting cold on time.
HACCP does not require automatic monitoring, but monitoring is the step it helps most
HACCP asks for checks at a set interval, written down. A person with a thermometer meets that. An automatic system meets it too, with far more readings, through the night and the weekend.
Automatic monitoring covers step 4 and feeds step 7. Steps 5 and 6 stay with people: deciding what to do about a bad reading, and checking the checks. TemperatureWise lets them record the corrective action in the app, beside the readings.
Does your HACCP plan stop at closing time?
TemperatureWise keeps the monitoring step running all night. It records every cooler and freezer at least every 15 minutes and keeps every reading indefinitely. When a box drifts out of its normal pattern, TemperatureWise emails, then texts and calls up to 3 people per sensor until someone answers.
For verification, TemperatureWise prints a daily sheet for each box with the reading at each check time, the highest reading since the last check, and the time spent above 41°F (5°C), ready for the manager to review and sign.
TemperatureWise covers cold holding in coolers and freezers. Cooking, cooling and hot holding still need a probe thermometer and a log.