HACCP plan example for a restaurant: a worked plan, row by row

A HACCP plan for a restaurant is a short document: a menu sorted by risk, a hazard analysis, a handful of critical limits (cook, hold, cool, reheat, receive), how and how often each is checked, what you do when one is missed, and the records. Below is a full example for an invented 40-seat restaurant, written the way a health department expects to read it. Copy the structure, then replace every row with your own menu. This HACCP plan example restaurant owners can adapt is an illustration, not a real customer's plan, and it is not a substitute for your local code.

If you would rather start from your own menu, find your restaurant and print the finished log, free. The plan written for your menu is a separate paid step you can skip.

Want the rows filled in for your menu? Print the finished log for your menu, free. No card.

The example restaurant and its menu

"Corner Table" is a made-up neighborhood restaurant with 40 seats, one kitchen, one walk-in cooler, one reach-in freezer and a line of two cooks. The menu:

Roast chicken with potatoes, served hot
Burgers cooked to order, beef ground in a supplier's plant
Pan-seared salmon
Soup of the day (made in a 5-gallon batch, chilled overnight, reheated to order)
Caesar salad with a cooked-egg dressing from pasteurized liquid egg
Pasta with cream sauce, made to order
Cheesecake, bought in

Nothing is cured, smoked, vacuum-sealed or served raw. That matters: a menu like this falls under the general retail rules, so the plan is a voluntary or inspector-requested food safety plan, not a variance document. See do restaurants need a HACCP plan for when that changes.

Step 1: describe the food and who eats it

One paragraph per food group is enough. For Corner Table: "Ready-to-eat hot foods served to the general public, including adults and children. No highly susceptible population (no nursing home, no daycare). Foods are held hot above 135°F or cold at or below 41°F, or served within four hours without temperature control." Add a line for allergens the menu contains (milk, egg, wheat, fish, tree nuts in the dessert).

Step 2: draw the flow

Group the menu by what happens to it, not dish by dish. Corner Table has three flows:

Flow	Dishes	Steps in order
A. Cook and serve	Chicken, burgers, salmon, pasta	Receive → store cold → prep → cook → hold hot or serve at once
B. Cook, chill, reheat	Soup, pasta sauce base	Receive → store → cook → cool → store cold (date marked) → reheat → hold hot → serve
C. No cook	Salad, cheesecake	Receive → store cold → prep → hold cold → serve

Three flows cover the whole menu. That is why a restaurant plan stays short.

Step 3: the hazard analysis

For each step, ask what could make a guest sick (biological, chemical, physical) and whether a control exists. The table shows the rows that matter. A "no" for a step means it is covered by prerequisite programs such as handwashing and cleaning, not by a critical control point.

Step	Hazard	Significant?	Control
Receiving cold food	Bacteria grown in transit	Yes	Check temperature at the door; reject above 41°F
Receiving fish	Histamine (scombrotoxin) from time-temperature abuse	Yes	Supplier letter, receive at 41°F or below, reject if warm or off odor
Cold storage	Bacterial growth	Yes	Cooler at 41°F or below, checked twice a day
Cooking chicken, burgers, salmon	Salmonella, E. coli, parasites survive	Yes	Cook to the minimum internal temperature
Cooling soup	Spore-formers (Clostridium perfringens, Bacillus cereus) grow	Yes	Two-stage cooling
Reheating soup	Growth during cooling and storage survives	Yes	Reheat to 165°F within 2 hours
Hot holding	Growth below 135°F	Yes	Hold at 135°F or above, check every 2 hours
Cold holding of salad and dessert	Growth above 41°F	Yes	Hold at 41°F or below
Slicing, plating	Cross-contamination from raw to ready-to-eat	Controlled by prerequisites	Separate boards, hand washing, sanitizer
Allergen handling	Undeclared allergen	Controlled by prerequisites	Menu labelling, ingredient cards, separate utensils

Notice what is missing: no row for every ingredient and no row for hazards that cannot happen on this menu.

Step 4: critical control points and critical limits

A critical control point (CCP) is a step where one measurement decides whether the hazard is controlled. The limits below come from the FDA Food Code, which most state and local rules are based on [1]. Check your own jurisdiction's adopted edition. More critical control point examples explain how to decide what is and is not a CCP.

CCP	Critical limit
1. Receiving cold TCS food	41°F or below (shell eggs 45°F; live shellfish 45°F air and 50°F internal; frozen food frozen solid)
2. Cooking	Poultry 165°F; ground meat 155°F; whole beef, pork, fish 145°F
3. Hot holding	135°F or above
4. Cooling	135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, then to 41°F within 4 more hours
5. Reheating for hot holding	165°F within 2 hours
6. Cold holding	41°F or below

Six CCPs cover the whole kitchen. Many restaurant plans use five to eight.

Step 5: monitoring, step by step

Monitoring says who measures what, with which tool, and how often. Write it as a sentence a new cook could follow.

CCP	What	How	Frequency	Who
Receiving	Product temperature	Probe thermometer into the center of the case	Every delivery	Person receiving
Cooking	Internal temperature	Probe in the thickest part	Every batch of chicken; each burger and salmon spot-checked, at least one per hour	Line cook
Hot holding	Food temperature in the pan	Probe, not the dial on the unit	Every 2 hours	Line cook
Cooling	Temperature and time	Probe in the center; note the clock time	At start, at 2 hours and at 6 hours	Closing cook
Reheating	Final temperature	Probe	Every batch	Line cook
Cold holding	Cooler and prep table	Thermometer in the unit plus a probe in a food sample	Opening and mid-shift	Opening cook

The tool is part of monitoring. A thermometer that reads two degrees high turns a good log into a bad one, so add a calibration check at the start of each week.

Step 6: corrective actions

Write the response before it is needed. Corrective actions say what happens to the food and what changes so it does not repeat.

Miss	Action on the food	Fix the cause
Delivery above 41°F	Reject, or take only if within a few degrees and used right away; note it	Call the supplier; move the delivery window
Chicken below 165°F	Keep cooking, recheck	Check the oven; retrain on probe placement
Hot holding below 135°F	If under 4 hours since it left 135°F, reheat to 165°F once and hold; otherwise discard	Service the unit; stop using it as a reheater
Soup above 70°F at 2 hours	Cool faster (ice bath, shallow pans) and watch the 6-hour mark; discard if it misses	Use shallower pans; split batches
Cooler above 41°F	Check food temperatures; discard what was above 41°F for 4+ hours or cannot be shown safe; move the rest	Call service; do not restock until fixed

See the cooling log and the reheating log for wording to copy.

Step 7: verification and records

Verification checks that the system works, not that one meal was safe. For Corner Table: the manager reviews and signs every log each week; thermometers are checked against ice water weekly; the whole plan is reviewed every year and whenever the menu, equipment or supplier changes; staff are briefed on it at hire and twice a year. Records are the logs themselves, the corrective-action notes, the calibration sheet and a dated copy of the plan. How long to keep them is covered in HACCP record keeping.

What to change for your own menu

Delete flows you do not have. No soup, no cooling CCP.
Add what makes you different. Raw oysters, sushi rice, sous vide and vacuum packing carry their own limits and, in most places, a variance or a required plan. See sous vide and raw oysters.
Use your jurisdiction's numbers. Some states hold hot food at 140°F, not 135°F.
Name people by role. "Opening cook" survives staff turnover.
Keep it short. A plan your cooks have never read is a plan that fails on a Saturday night.

Common mistakes in a sample plan

Copying a processor's plan with 12 CCPs and thousands of words for a 40-seat restaurant.
Listing limits with no way to measure them (a dial thermometer on the steam table).
Skipping corrective actions, so the log shows a miss and nothing else.
Pre-filling logs in a block, which an inspector spots straight away.
Never reviewing the plan after a menu change.

Is an example enough, or do I need it written?

An example teaches the shape. It does not know your cooler, your suppliers or your menu. Free templates leave you to fill the rows; what a free template covers lists what they leave out. Paying someone is an option too: HACCP plan cost compares consultants, software and writing it yourself. The honest test is whether you can finish the six tables above in an evening. If so, do it. If not, getting the plan written is the cheaper hour.

Questions

How long is a restaurant HACCP plan?

Often 6 to 15 pages including logs. The example above is about five tables plus a paragraph per step.

Can I use this example as my plan?

Not word for word. Use the structure, then fill it with your menu, equipment and local limits, and have the manager sign it.

Who signs the plan?

The person responsible for food safety in the restaurant, usually the owner or kitchen manager, with a date.

Does the plan need a flow diagram?

The seven principles call for a process description. A table of flows, as above, serves in most restaurants. Some health departments ask for a drawn diagram, so ask yours.

How often do I update it?

At least once a year and whenever the menu, equipment, supplier or rules change.

Is there a HACCP plan example restaurant inspectors accept?

Many health departments publish their own sample or required format. Ask yours first; a plan in their format is easier for them to approve.

Ready to stop copying tables? Find your restaurant and print the finished log, free.

For the section order and table columns, see the HACCP plan format.