4- Monitor CCP

Background: From Menu to Hazards and The Foundation: Prerequisite Programs (PRPs) in your Food Handler Certificate course cover the theory. This lesson shows you how to apply it to your own Food Safety Plan.

Objective: By the end of this lesson, you will be able to set up monitoring for every CCP. You will be able to:

• Answer the four monitoring questions: what, how, when and who.
• Choose and calibrate thermometers.
• Design a simple log.

Monitoring answers four questions

• What is checked? For example, the internal temperature of the chicken.
• How? A probe thermometer in the thickest part, away from the bone.
• When? Every batch, before it leaves the oven.
• Who? The cook on the roast station, named on the log.

Thermometers

• Use a probe thermometer accurate to ±1 °C (±2 °F).
• Wash and sanitize the probe between foods.
• Calibrate it every week and after a drop: in ice water it should read 0 °C (32 °F). Adjust or replace it if it does not.
• Keep a fridge thermometer in every refrigerator and freezer, and read it at the start of each shift.

A log that works

Keep it simple and close to the station: date, time, product, temperature, initials and a column for corrective action. A clipboard or a tablet both work. A log filled in at the end of the day from memory is worthless; it must be filled in at the time of the check.

Exercise: for each CCP in your plan, write the what, how, when and who, and draw the log you will use.