Identifying Critical Points

Background: From Menu to Hazards in your Food Handler Certificate course covers 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 map your menu and mark the critical points before writing your HACCP plan. You will be able to:

• Group menu items by process.
• Mark the critical points on each flow diagram.
• Prepare the list you will test with the seven HACCP principles.

Start from your menu

Write down every item on your menu, including sauces, garnishes and staff meals. Then sort them by the way they are prepared:

• No cook: received, stored, prepared and served raw or cold (salads, tartare, oysters).
• Same-day service: cooked and served the same day (grilled steak, sautéed fish).
• Complex: cooked, cooled, stored and reheated (stocks, braises, soups, sauces).

Mark the critical points

Draw a short flow diagram for each group and circle the steps where a hazard could reach the guest if the step went wrong:

• Receiving high-risk raw foods.
• Cooking raw animal foods.
• Cooling cooked food (the most common cause of outbreaks from complex foods).
• Reheating and holding.
• Any step where an allergen could be added or transferred.

These circled steps are your candidate critical control points. Test each one with the seven HACCP principles you studied earlier in this course, and set critical limits, monitoring and corrective actions for those that are true CCPs.