7- Record Keeping

Background: Corrective Actions, Verification, and Documentation and Audit, Improvement, and Application 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 keep the records that prove your plan works. You will be able to:

• List the records your plan needs.
• Set up a simple filing system.
• Know how long to keep records.

If it is not written down, it did not happen

Records are your evidence. They show an inspector, an insurer or a court that you control food safety every day, not only on the day of the inspection.

Records to keep

• The plan itself: hazard analysis, CCPs, critical limits, monitoring, corrective actions and verification.
• Monitoring logs: cooking, cooling, reheating, hot and cold holding, fridge and freezer temperatures.
• Corrective action records.
• Verification records: log reviews, thermometer calibration, plan reviews.
• Prerequisite program records: cleaning schedules, pest control reports, supplier list, receiving logs, staff training and food handler certificates.

Good practice

• Use ink or a locked digital log; never pencil or white-out. Cross out errors with one line and initial them.
• Keep records for at least one year, or longer if your health authority requires it.
• Store them where they can be found in minutes: a binder in the office or a shared folder.