Process-Based Food SP Process

Objective: By the end of this lesson, you will be able to build a process-based Food Safety Plan for a full menu. You will be able to:

• Sort every menu item into one of the three processes.
• Apply the critical controls for each process.
• Keep the plan up to date as the menu changes.

Step 1 — Sort your menu

Take your full menu, including specials and staff meals, and place every item in one process. Look at what happens to the food, not the name of the dish.

• Process 1 — No cook: received, stored, prepared and served without a cooking step.
• Process 2 — Same-day service: cooked, then served or held hot the same day.
• Process 3 — Complex: cooked, cooled, stored and reheated, or prepared over several days.

Some dishes combine processes. A Caesar salad with grilled chicken is Process 1 (lettuce) plus Process 2 (chicken). Control each component.

Step 2 — Apply the controls for each process

Process	Main hazard	Critical controls
1 — No cook	Pathogens on raw food are never destroyed	Approved suppliers; cold receiving and storage at 4 °C (40 °F) or below; no bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food; washing produce; separation from raw meat; shellfish tags kept
2 — Same-day service	Pathogens survive under-cooking; growth during holding	Cooking to the required internal temperature (for example 74 °C / 165 °F for poultry); hot holding at 60 °C (140 °F) or above, or time control; discard leftovers at the end of service if your plan says so
3 — Complex	Spore-formers and toxins during slow cooling and reheating	Cooking to temperature; cooling 60 °C to 21 °C within 2 hours and to 4 °C within 4 more; cold holding with date labels; reheating to 74 °C (165 °F) within 2 hours; hot holding at 60 °C or above

Temperatures shown follow Canadian practice and the FDA Food Code. Some US codes use 135 °F (57 °C) for hot holding and 41 °F (5 °C) for cold holding — use the limits your local code requires.

Step 3 — Write it down

• A one-page list of menu items by process.
• For each process: the controls, the limits, how they are monitored, the corrective actions and the logs used (cooking, cooling, holding, receiving).
• Separate recipe-based plans for any specialized process (see the previous lesson).

Step 4 — Keep it current

Every time you add a dish, ask: which process is it? If it fits an existing process, add it to the list. If it introduces something new — sous vide, fermentation, curing, a new cooling method — review the plan, and check with your health authority before serving it.