How to Fill In the HACCP Book: Step-by-Step Guide

The HACCP book (ksiega HACCP) is the core of your food safety documentation. Sanepid inspectors look at it in every inspection, and it is the first thing they ask for if a food safety incident occurs. Yet many food business owners either buy a generic template, fill in the company name, and put it on a shelf, or delay the whole thing because it feels overwhelming. This guide explains exactly what goes in your HACCP book, how to fill each section correctly, and what mistakes to avoid.

Part 1: What the HACCP Book Contains

The HACCP book has two distinct types of content. Understanding this distinction will help you see the logic of the whole system.

Permanent Documents

These are written once and updated only when your operation changes: when you add dishes, change suppliers, install new equipment, or revise your processes. They form the analytical backbone of your HACCP system.

• Company details: business name, address, NIP, type of operation
• Menu and product list: every dish or product group you produce
• Process flow diagrams: the sequence of steps from raw material to the customer for each product group
• Hazard analysis table: for each process step, the biological, chemical, and physical hazards identified
• Critical control point (CCP) identification: which steps are CCPs and why
• Critical limits for each CCP: specific, measurable values
• Monitoring procedures: who monitors, what they monitor, how often, and with what instrument
• Corrective actions: what to do when a critical limit is breached
• Verification procedures: how you check that the system is working

Running Registers

These are filled in daily or weekly as part of your normal operations. They are the evidence that your HACCP system is being implemented, not just described.

• Temperature log: fridge and freezer temperatures recorded at least once daily, cooking temperatures recorded for every batch at a CCP
• Goods receiving register: every delivery recorded with supplier, date, temperature, and acceptance or rejection decision. For a template see Delivery Register for Food Businesses: Template and Instructions.
• Cleaning and sanitizing register: daily and weekly cleaning tasks, signed off when completed
• Pest control register: scheduled inspections and any pest activity or treatments recorded
• Training register: dates, topics, and names of food handlers who have completed food safety training
• Corrective actions log: every instance where a critical limit was breached, the action taken, and the outcome

Part 2: The 8-Step Filling Guide

Step 1: Fill In Company Details

Start with the basics: your registered business name, trading name (if different), full address of the food operation, NIP number, and the type of catering operation. Be specific about the type: "restaurant with table service", "cafe and coffee bar", "food truck selling street food", "event catering company". This framing sets the scope of everything that follows.

If you have more than one food business location, each location needs its own HACCP book. The book covers the specific operation at a specific address.

Step 2: List All Dishes or Product Groups

You do not need to list every single dish on your menu individually. Group them by production process: "hot meat dishes", "cold starters", "salads and dressings", "baked desserts", "raw fish dishes". The grouping should reflect how the food is processed, not how it is presented on the menu.

If you add new dishes later that do not fit any existing product group (for example, you add sushi to a previously hot-food-only menu), you need to add a new product group and complete the hazard analysis for it before putting the dish on the menu.

Step 3: Draw the Process Flow for Each Product Group

A process flow diagram is a simple flowchart showing the sequence of steps from raw material to service. For a hot meat dish, this might look like: goods receiving, chilled storage, preparation (trimming, portioning), marinating, cooking, hot-holding, plating, service.

The process flow does not need to be graphically sophisticated. A hand-drawn or typed list of steps with arrows between them is perfectly acceptable. What matters is that it accurately reflects what actually happens in your kitchen, not what ideally happens. Walk through your actual process when drawing it.

Step 4: Identify Hazards at Each Process Step

For each step in the process flow, ask: what could go wrong here, and what type of hazard would it be?

• Biological hazards: bacteria (Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus), viruses (norovirus, hepatitis A), parasites (Toxoplasma, Anisakis in fish)
• Chemical hazards: allergen transfer, residues of cleaning agents or sanitizing chemicals, pesticide residues on fresh produce, migration from non-food-grade packaging or equipment materials
• Physical hazards: glass fragments, metal fragments from equipment, bone fragments in fish or poultry, stones in dried pulses, personal effects (jewellery, pen lids)

For a full explanation of how to structure the hazard analysis, see our guide at 7 HACCP Principles with Practical Examples for Restaurants.

Step 5: Decide Whether Each Hazard Requires a CCP

Not every hazard becomes a critical control point. A CCP is a step where: a control measure can be applied, the control is essential to prevent or eliminate the hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level, and failure to control it would result in unacceptable risk to the consumer.

Use the HACCP decision tree to work through each hazard systematically. The key questions are: does a control measure exist at this step? Does this step specifically eliminate or reduce the hazard to an acceptable level? Could contamination occur at an unacceptable level, or could it increase to an unacceptable level at this or a later step? Is there a subsequent step that will eliminate or reduce the hazard?

If cooking will eliminate a biological hazard introduced at an earlier step, the cooking step is the CCP, not the earlier step. Pre-requisite programmes (cleaning procedures, supplier controls, staff hygiene) manage many hazards without making every step a CCP.

Step 6: Set Critical Limits for Each CCP

A critical limit is the boundary between safe and unsafe at a CCP. It must be measurable, specific, and based on food science, not on habit or guesswork.

Examples of correctly set critical limits:

• Cooking poultry: core temperature minimum 74°C (not "cook until juices run clear")
• Cooking minced meat: core temperature minimum 70°C
• Cooking whole cuts of beef (medium): core temperature minimum 63°C with a 3-minute rest time
• Cooling cooked food: from 60°C to 10°C within 2 hours
• Chilled storage: maximum 5°C; maximum 3°C for raw fish
• Frozen storage: maximum -18°C
• Hot-holding: minimum 63°C throughout the holding period
• Goods receiving for chilled products: maximum 5°C at delivery; maximum 3°C for fresh fish

Base your limits on EFSA guidance, Polish GIS guidance, or recognised food safety references. If you set a limit you cannot justify, an inspector will ask you to justify it.

Step 7: Define Monitoring Procedures

For each CCP, document: who is responsible for monitoring (job title, not name), what they measure (core temperature, delivery temperature, holding temperature), how they measure it (calibrated probe thermometer, data logger, visual inspection), how often they measure (every batch, every delivery, every two hours during service), and where they record the result (which register, which form).

Monitoring must be feasible in practice. If you require core temperature checks of every chicken breast during a busy service but you only have one probe thermometer shared between three cooks, your monitoring procedure will not be followed. Design a system that works in your actual kitchen, then document that system.

Step 8: Define Corrective Actions for Each CCP

For every CCP, define what happens when the critical limit is breached. Corrective actions must be pre-defined, not improvised on the day. They must address: what to do with the affected food (discard, re-cook, reject), how to restore control at the CCP (re-calibrate the thermometer, call the engineer, increase the oven temperature), and how to record the incident (which log, what information to capture).

A corrective action that says only "discard the food" is incomplete. You also need to establish why the limit was breached and whether the cause has been corrected before production resumes.

Part 3: Common Mistakes

• Generic templates filled in without adapting to the actual menu: an inspector who sees "product: all dishes" in the hazard analysis table knows the plan has not been genuinely completed. The analysis must reflect your specific products and processes.
• Critical limits copied without understanding: setting 70°C as the cooking CCP critical limit for all products when poultry requires 74°C is a technical error that could result in a food safety failure. Understand why each limit is set where it is.
• Monitoring forms that nobody fills in: blank temperature logs, or logs filled in retrospectively at the end of the day in the same handwriting for every entry, do not demonstrate real-time monitoring. If your monitoring system is too burdensome, simplify it so that it gets done.
• No corrective action records: if your temperature logs show only perfect readings with no deviations over months of operation, an inspector may question whether the records are genuine. Corrective action records show that your system is real and responsive.
• Not updating when the menu changes: adding a raw fish dish to a menu that previously contained only cooked food requires a new product group, a new process flow, and a new hazard analysis before the dish is served to customers.

DIY or Food Technologist?

You can complete your HACCP book yourself if you understand the principles and have time to work through each step carefully. Many small operators successfully prepare their own HACCP documentation using a structured, ready-made HACCP documentation package.

A food technologist (technolog zywnosci) will prepare a complete HACCP book for you, typically for PLN 500 to 2,000 depending on the complexity of your menu and the number of CCPs. This saves time and reduces the risk of technical errors, but the resulting document is only as good as the information you provide about your actual processes. If the technologist does not visit your kitchen, the plan may not reflect reality.

GastroReady templates are a middle ground: pre-structured documents with example entries adapted to common catering operations, which you adapt to your own menu and processes. This gives you the structure without starting from a blank page, while keeping the responsibility for accuracy with you.

How Often to Update the HACCP Book

Update your HACCP book when any of the following occur:

• You add new dishes or product groups to your menu
• You change suppliers for any ingredient covered by a CCP
• You install new equipment that changes a process step
• You change a process (for example, switching from batch cooking to cook-chill)
• A Sanepid inspection identifies a gap or non-conformity in your plan
• A food safety incident occurs that reveals a hazard not covered by the current plan

As a minimum, review the entire HACCP book annually to confirm that it still accurately reflects your operation. Date and sign each review in the document.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the HACCP book the same as GHP documentation?

No. GHP (Good Hygiene Practice) documentation covers the pre-requisite programmes that support your HACCP system: cleaning and sanitizing procedures, pest control, staff hygiene, maintenance of premises and equipment, and water quality management. These are necessary foundations for HACCP but are separate documents. Many businesses keep GHP documentation and the HACCP book together in one binder, which is acceptable, but they are distinct systems.

Can I keep the HACCP book digitally?

Yes. EU Regulation 852/2004 does not require paper records. Digital records are acceptable provided they are accessible during an inspection (you can show them to an inspector on a screen or print them on request), they are backed up and protected against loss, and running registers are completed in real time (not retrospectively). A spreadsheet on a shared drive, a dedicated food safety app, or a cloud-based system all work, provided the records are genuine and contemporaneous.

What if I cannot identify any CCPs?

If your hazard analysis genuinely shows no CCPs (for example, in a very simple operation where all food is bought pre-cooked and served cold with no further processing), you still need to document the analysis and explain why no CCPs were identified. Pre-requisite programmes must then be robust enough to manage all identified hazards. A Sanepid inspector will scrutinise a zero-CCP plan carefully, so the reasoning must be clearly documented.

How long do I keep the running registers?

The general recommended minimum for running registers (temperature logs, delivery records, cleaning records, corrective action logs) is two years. If you produce food with a shelf life longer than two months, records should be kept for at least six months beyond the end of the product's shelf life. Keep the permanent HACCP book documents for as long as the business operates.