HACCP Certification
HACCP is a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating and controlling the food safety hazards that matter in your production and handling processes.
- Standard
- HACCP
- Indicative timeline
- 6-10 weeks, depending on the maturity of the existing plan
- Discipline
- Food & Product Assurance
- Assessment type
- Independent third-party assessment
The standard
Overview
HACCP — Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — is the internationally recognised method for managing food safety. Rather than relying on end-product testing alone, it asks you to analyse every step of your process, identify where a biological, chemical, physical or allergenic hazard could occur, and put a monitored control in place at each point that is critical to safety.
A documented HACCP plan is built on the established principles: conduct a hazard analysis, determine the critical control points, establish critical limits, set up monitoring, define corrective actions, verify the system works and keep records that prove it. Prerequisite programmes — hygiene, pest control, cleaning, maintenance, training and traceability — underpin the plan and are assessed alongside it.
UKCert assesses your HACCP system against your documented plan and the recognised principles. We review the hazard analysis, walk the process from intake to dispatch, sample monitoring and corrective action records, and confirm that what happens on the floor matches what the plan says. Findings are written in plain English against the specific step and control concerned, and the certification decision is taken independently of the audit team.
Who this is for
- Food and beverage manufacturers and processors
- Commercial kitchens, caterers and central production units
- Packers, storage and distribution operations handling food
- Ingredient and additive suppliers into food supply chains
- Businesses asked for HACCP evidence by retailers or wholesale customers
- Operators building towards ISO 22000 or retailer standards
What it gives you
Why organisations certify
What a certified HACCP assessment gives you once the certificate is issued.
Hazards identified before they occur
A structured hazard analysis surfaces the biological, chemical, physical and allergen risks in each process step, so controls target real risk rather than habit.
Critical control points that hold
Each CCP carries a defined critical limit, a monitoring routine and a named person responsible, so a drift out of limit is caught during production, not after dispatch.
Corrective action with evidence
When monitoring shows a limit breached, the plan states what happens to the product and the process, and the record shows it was done.
Documentation that stands inspection
Records of monitoring, verification and review give environmental health officers, customers and auditors the evidence they ask for in the form they expect.
Customer and supply-chain confidence
Retailers, wholesalers and food-service customers routinely require documented HACCP from suppliers. Independent certification answers the question once, in writing.
A base for further standards
A working HACCP system is the core of ISO 22000 and the major retailer schemes, so the effort carries forward rather than being repeated.
Scope
What the assessment covers
The areas an assessor works through. Your final scope is confirmed in writing before any audit is booked.
- Hazard analysis across biological, chemical, physical and allergen risks
- Critical control point determination and justification
- Critical limits with a measurable basis
- Monitoring procedures, frequencies and responsibilities
- Corrective action and product disposition rules
- Verification and validation activities
- Prerequisite programmes: hygiene, cleaning, pest control, training
- Record keeping and document control
How it runs
The assessment, stage by stage
From first enquiry to certificate. Each stage is agreed with you before it starts.
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Scope and quotation
We confirm your products, processes, sites and shift patterns, then quote the assessment on that written scope before anything is booked.
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Plan review
A desk review of your HACCP plan, hazard analysis, CCP determinations and prerequisite programmes against the recognised principles, with any gaps reported before the site visit.
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Site assessment
We walk the process from goods-in to dispatch, observe the CCPs in operation, interview the people monitoring them and sample the monitoring, corrective action and verification records.
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Findings and close-out
Findings reference the process step and control concerned. You correct them with evidence of root cause, on a timescale agreed with the assessor.
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Certification and surveillance
An independent reviewer takes the certification decision. Surveillance visits during the cycle confirm the plan is still current and still being followed.
Questions
HACCP — frequently asked
Anything here that does not cover your situation, put it to an assessor rather than guessing at it.
Same discipline
Other schemes in Food & Product Assurance
Certifying against more than one standard?
Where you hold several standards, shared clauses are assessed once in a combined visit rather than as separate audits. Talk it through with an assessor before you decide what HACCP should sit alongside.