Regulations

Objective: By the end of this lesson, you will know who regulates food safety in your restaurant and what the rules expect from your Food Safety Plan. You will be able to:

• Identify the authority that inspects and permits your food premises.
• Explain why a written Food Safety Plan and Sanitation Plan are expected.
• Recognize the special processes that need a HACCP plan or approval.

Who regulates your restaurant?

Restaurants are regulated locally. Your health authority — an environmental health officer (EHO) in Canada, a health inspector or sanitarian in the United States — approves your premises, issues your permit to operate and inspects you. The rules they enforce come from provincial, state or local food codes, so always start by reading the regulation that applies where you operate and asking your inspector what they expect to see.

Canada

• Food service is regulated by each province and territory. Federal rules (the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, enforced by the CFIA) mainly apply to businesses that import, export or sell food across provincial borders — not to a typical restaurant.
• Example — British Columbia: sections 23 and 24 of the Food Premises Regulation require operators to write, keep current and follow both a food safety plan and a sanitation plan. The local health authority reviews and approves them.
• Most provinces also require at least one trained food handler on site (for example, FOODSAFE in British Columbia).

United States

• States and local jurisdictions adopt a version of the FDA Food Code, sometimes with their own amendments.
• Most restaurants are not required to have a full HACCP plan, but the Food Code expects active managerial control: a certified food protection manager, written procedures and records for key controls such as cooking, cooling and holding.
• A HACCP plan, and often a variance, is required for specialized processes such as curing or smoking food for preservation, acidifying sushi rice, reduced-oxygen packaging (vacuum packing, sous vide, cook-chill), custom-processing animals and keeping live shellfish in a display tank.

What this means for your plan

• Write your plan for your menu and your processes — inspectors want to see what you actually do.
• Keep it current. Every new dish, new supplier or new piece of equipment may change it.
• Keep the records the plan promises (temperatures, cleaning, training). An inspector will ask for them.
• Before you add a specialized process like sous vide or house-cured charcuterie, talk to your health authority first.

Rules and limits differ by jurisdiction. Use this course to build your plan, then check the final version against your local regulation and your inspector’s requirements.