Haccp Consultancy
HACCP Consultants
Identify Hazards. Control Risks. Protect Customers.
Plans that hold up under scrutiny
Every food business needs a food safety management system built on HACCP principles. That much is clear. What is less obvious is how much detail is expected, how often it needs revisiting, and what happens when an auditor decides your plan does not reflect what actually goes on in your kitchen or on your line.
That is where we come in. Our HACCP consultants have been working with food businesses since 1996, across catering, manufacturing, schools and care. We build HACCP plans that hold up under scrutiny and that your team can actually follow.
Whether you are starting from nothing, fixing something that failed, or just want a second opinion before an audit, there is a way of working here that will suit you.
How our HACCP consultants work with you
Most of the work we do falls into one of two camps. Either you have no HACCP plan and you need one, or you have a plan and it needs to be better. Whichever you are, the starting point is the same conversation.
Building a HACCP plan from scratch
A HACCP plan is only worth having if it describes your operation. Templates borrowed from another business fail the moment anyone asks a specific question about a specific process.
We start on site. We walk your operation, map your process flows, and work out where hazards genuinely sit rather than where a generic plan says they should. From there we set critical control points your team can monitor without adding an hour to everyone’s day, and build the documentation around them.
We will also look at the basics your plan sits on, things like cleaning, pest control and supplier assurance, because getting your HACCP prerequisite programmes right often removes hazards from the plan altogether and makes the whole system simpler to run.
You end up with a plan built on the Codex principles, written in language your staff will understand, and evidenced in a way that satisfies both enforcement officers and customer auditors.
Reviewing and improving an existing HACCP plan
Plenty of businesses come to us with a plan already in place and a nagging sense that it will not survive close inspection. Sometimes they are right. Often the plan is sound and the problem is that the business has moved on without it.
We review what you have and tell you honestly where it stands. That means checking the plan against what actually happens on site rather than just reading the document, so you find out what a customer or an enforcement officer would find before they find it. You get a written report with a prioritised action plan, and we can carry out the improvements with you or leave them in your hands.
If it needs rewriting we will say so. If it just needs gaps closing and records tightening, we will say that instead, and you will not pay for work you do not need.
If you would rather build that reviewing capability in house, our auditing and inspection skills training covers the same ground.
Sue recommends
Most HACCP issues we see are not caused by a poor plan, but by a good plan that has not kept pace with changes in the business. Menus, ingredients, suppliers, equipment and processes evolve, but the HACCP plan is often left untouched. A HACCP plan is only effective if it reflects what is actually happening in your business today.
Sue Ellis, Managing Director
HACCP support for your sector
A plan that works on a production line will not work in a kitchen on a Saturday night. We build for the way your business actually runs.
HACCP for food manufacturers
Manufacturing brings pressures catering does not. Multiple lines, traceability requirements, allergen segregation, and customers whose technical teams will audit you before they will buy from you.
Our consultants work with food and drink manufacturers on Codex based systems that stand up to retail and third party scrutiny. We know what a technical manager will ask for and where sites typically come unstuck, usually somewhere between the flow diagram and what actually happens on the floor.
If you are building a system for the first time, responding to a difficult audit, or extending an existing plan across new lines, it is worth a conversation.
HACCP for catering businesses
Catering has its own pressures: menus that change, high staff turnover, and controls that have to work in practice even at eight o’clock on a busy Saturday night when the kitchen is at full stretch.
A HACCP plan for a catering operation needs to be simple enough that a new starter can follow it in their first week. We build systems around how your kitchen actually runs, not around how a manufacturing site runs, and we keep the documentation proportionate.
Whether you run one kitchen or twenty, the aim is the same, a system your team will actually use. You can see more of how we support hospitality and catering businesses if you want the wider picture.
HACCP and BRCGS certification
The BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety sets detailed requirements for HACCP, and this is often one of the areas where businesses face the greatest challenges during certification.
If you are working towards certification, or looking to improve following a grade that fell short of expectations, we can review your HACCP system specifically against the requirements of the standard. This can also form part of our wider food safety consultancy, supporting you with the broader systems and controls needed for successful certification.
- Working towards your first certification
- Recovering from a grade you were not happy with
- Checked against what the standard actually expects
When your HACCP plan needs reviewing
There is no fixed interval that suits every business, but there are triggers worth watching for. Review your plan when:
- You change what you produce, or how you produce it
- You bring in new equipment or change your layout
- You take on a new supplier or a new raw material
- You add an allergen to your site, or remove one
- Legislation or your certification standard changes
- Your monitoring checks keep finding the same problem
- An audit or inspection raises a HACCP related finding
Beyond those, an annual review is sensible for most businesses. If you have not looked at yours in over a year, that is usually the point at which it has quietly stopped matching reality. Our food safety systems guides go into more detail if you want to work through it yourself first.
Who you will be working with
You will not be handed to somebody working through a template. Every consultant who works on a HACCP plan holds the Level 4 Award in Food Safety as a minimum, and a number of our team are former Environmental Health Officers with degrees in Environmental Health.
That matters more than it might sound. Somebody who has spent years inspecting food businesses knows what an enforcement officer looks at first, how they read a plan, and which gaps get picked up straight away. You get that judgement applied to your business rather than a checklist worked through in order.
Level 4 Award in Food Safety, minimum
Former Environmental Health Officers
Degrees in Environmental Health
Sue recommends
Ask any consultant what they did before they became a consultant. A good number of ours came from environmental health, and it changes how they read your plan. They are not checking whether the paperwork looks tidy. They are asking whether it would hold up when somebody starts pulling records at random.
Sue Ellis, Managing Director
What Our Customers Say About Us
What HACCP consultancy costs
Every project is priced individually, because the work involved in a single site catering business is nothing like the work involved in a multi line manufacturing site. Quoting you a headline figure here would either overstate what you need to spend or understate it, and neither helps you.
Tell us what you have and what you are trying to achieve, and we will email you a bespoke price. There is no package you have to squeeze yourself into, and no charge for the conversation that gets us there. Just send us an enquiry and we will take it from there.
Would training suit you better?
Not everyone needs a consultant. If you want the expertise in house, or you have someone who is ready to take HACCP on properly, training may be the better investment.
The Level 4 Award in HACCP for Management covers developing, implementing and evaluating a Codex based system, and is aimed at technical managers, quality managers, auditors and anyone responsible for the system as a whole. The Level 3 Award in HACCP for Food Manufacturing suits those contributing to or reviewing a system rather than owning it. Both are Highfield accredited qualifications.
Plenty of businesses do both: we build the system, and we train the person who will look after it. If you are not sure which side of that line you sit on, ask us.
Not sure what you need?
If something needs sorting but you are not certain what, start with the free review.
It is an informal but structured conversation with one of our experts, held online. We ask a lot of questions, you tell us what is worrying you, and afterwards you get a written report with our recommendations.
No charge, no obligation. Some businesses take the report away and act on it themselves, which is completely fine.
- Held online, at a time that suits you
- Informal but structured conversation
- Written report with our recommendations
- No charge and no obligation to go further
Talk to a HACCP consultant
If you know what you need, get in touch and we will get it moving. If you are still working it out, book the free review and we will help you decide.
If you would rather have expert support on hand all year round, Safeguard membership covers ongoing advice for a predictable monthly cost, and our wider food safety consultancy picks up everything beyond HACCP.