HACCP Principle 1: How to Conduct a Hazard Analysis

Every hazard in a food operation falls into one of three categories: biological, chemical, or physical. Biological hazards include pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli O157, and Clostridium perfringens. These are the most common cause of foodborne illness in the UK, with Campylobacter alone responsible for roughly 300,000 cases annually according to the Food Standards Agency. Chemical hazards cover allergens (the 14 declarable allergens under UK food law), cleaning chemical residues, pesticides, and naturally occurring toxins such as solanine in green potatoes or scombrotoxin in improperly stored fish. Physical hazards include foreign bodies like glass fragments, metal shavings from worn equipment, bone fragments, jewellery, and pest debris. When conducting your analysis, list every ingredient, every piece of equipment, and every process step, then systematically ask: which of these three hazard types could be introduced or could increase at this point?

At the receiving stage, key hazards include deliveries arriving above 8°C (the legal maximum for chilled foods in England and Wales under the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations 2013), damaged or pest-contaminated packaging, and missing allergen information from suppliers. During storage, cross-contamination from raw to ready-to-eat foods, temperature fluctuations from overloaded fridges, and pest ingress are primary concerns. In preparation, physical contamination from worn chopping boards, allergen cross-contact from shared surfaces, and bacterial multiplication if food sits in the danger zone (8°C to 63°C) for extended periods are the main risks. At cooking, the hazard is inadequate thermal processing - for example, chicken must reach a core temperature of at least 75°C (or 70°C held for 2 minutes) to eliminate Salmonella and Campylobacter. During cooling, the risk is bacterial growth if food takes too long to pass through the danger zone; best practice is to cool food from 63°C to below 8°C within 90 minutes. At service, holding temperatures (above 63°C for hot food), time limits for ambient display, and allergen communication to customers are the critical hazards.

For smaller operations such as cafes, pubs, and independent restaurants, the hazard analysis does not need to be a 50-page document. Focus on the hazards that are genuinely relevant to your menu and operation. A cafe that only serves sandwiches, soups, and baked goods has a very different hazard profile from a restaurant doing sous vide cooking. Use your supplier specifications, delivery records, and customer complaint history as data sources. If you have had three complaints about foreign bodies in salads in the past year, that tells you something about your preparation controls. Review your analysis at least annually, whenever your menu changes significantly, when you change supplier, after any food safety incident, and after an inspection by your local authority. The FSA recommends that HACCP plans for smaller businesses can be based on the Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) pack, which incorporates hazard analysis thinking into its safe methods approach.