Introduction
The HACCP Plan Developer & Auditor course is designed to build the knowledge and practical skills required to develop, implement, verify, and audit effective food safety systems based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point principles.
Food safety management depends on more than responding to problems after they occur. It requires a structured preventive system that identifies potential hazards, controls risks at critical stages, maintains strong documentation, and verifies that procedures are consistently followed. This course gives participants a practical understanding of HACCP requirements, prerequisite programs, hazard analysis, critical control points, corrective actions, validation, verification, and audit readiness.
The program covers key global food safety references, including Codex Alimentarius, FDA FSMA, EU Regulations, and relevant local laws. It also addresses Good Manufacturing Practices, Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures, Operational Prerequisite Programs, allergen management, cross-contact prevention, pest control, waste management, and preparation for third-party audits such as BRCGS, IFS, and FSSC 22000.
By combining technical instruction with workshops, plan-building activities, corrective action simulations, and official exam-style review, this five-day course prepares participants to develop stronger HACCP plans, evaluate system gaps, conduct internal audits, and approach certification exams with greater confidence.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Understand the history, purpose, and structure of HACCP systems.
- Explain the role of Codex Alimentarius, FDA FSMA, EU Regulations, and local food safety laws.
- Identify the relationship between HACCP, Good Manufacturing Practices, Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures, and Operational Prerequisite Programs.
- Assess food safety hazards across biological, chemical, and physical categories.
- Develop product descriptions, process flow diagrams, and HACCP team structures.
- Conduct hazard analysis using risk-based methods and severity-likelihood assessment.
- Identify critical control points using structured decision-making tools.
- Establish scientifically supported critical limits for food safety controls.
- Design effective monitoring procedures for critical control points.
- Develop corrective action procedures for deviations and critical limit failures.
- Differentiate between validation, verification, and routine monitoring.
- Prepare HACCP documentation, records, worksheets, and audit-ready manuals.
- Build internal audit checklists for HACCP system evaluation.
- Prepare for certification-style questions and official exam simulations.
- Strengthen readiness for regulatory inspections and third-party audits.
Course Outlines
Day 1: Regulatory Foundations and Prerequisite Programs
- Introduction to HACCP history, purpose, scope, and application in food safety systems.
- Understanding the structure and expectations of official HACCP certification exams.
- Reviewing international food safety frameworks, including Codex Alimentarius, FDA FSMA, EU Regulations, and local legal requirements.
- Understanding Good Manufacturing Practices and their role in supporting HACCP implementation.
- Reviewing hygienic facility zoning, sanitary workflow layout, equipment design, and personnel hygiene controls.
- Designing sanitation standard operating procedures for cleaning, sanitation, chemical control, and hygiene verification.
- Building operational prerequisite programs for pest exclusion, waste stream management, and general food safety control.
- Developing allergen management matrices and cross-contact prevention protocols.
- Workshop: conducting a prerequisite program gap analysis using an industrial kitchen layout.
- Practical activity: identifying sanitation, zoning, workflow, and facility design weaknesses.
Day 2: Preliminary HACCP Steps and Hazard Identification
- Understanding the five preliminary steps required before applying HACCP principles.
- Structuring a cross-functional HACCP team with clear technical and operational responsibilities.
- Documenting product descriptions, ingredients, intended use, storage conditions, and vulnerable consumer risks.
- Developing a complete process flow diagram for food production and handling operations.
- Confirming the process flow diagram through on-site observation and operational review.
- Applying Principle 1 of HACCP through biological hazard analysis.
- Identifying and controlling foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria, viruses, and toxin-related hazards.
- Applying chemical hazard analysis, including intentional and unintentional chemical contamination.
- Reviewing mycotoxins, heavy metals, cleaning chemicals, residues, and ingredient-related chemical risks.
- Workshop: developing a full process flow diagram for a complex multi-ingredient product.
Day 3: Risk Assessment, Critical Control Points, and Critical Limits
- Identifying physical hazards such as glass, brittle plastics, metal fragments, stones, packaging materials, and foreign objects.
- Understanding foreign material prevention and physical contamination control methods.
- Evaluating hazard significance using a structured severity and likelihood risk matrix.
- Applying HACCP Principle 2 to identify critical control points.
- Using the Codex Alimentarius decision tree to distinguish between control measures and true critical control points.
- Applying HACCP Principle 3 to establish critical limits.
- Defining scientifically validated critical limits such as time, temperature, acidity level, water activity, and measurable control boundaries.
- Understanding the difference between operational limits and critical limits.
- Workshop: completing a hazard analysis worksheet for raw and cooked product lines.
- Practical activity: determining critical control points and critical limits for selected food production processes.
Day 4: Monitoring, Corrective Actions, Verification, and Documentation
- Applying HACCP Principle 4 by designing monitoring procedures for critical control points.
- Building monitoring strategies by defining what will be monitored, how it will be monitored, how often monitoring will occur, and who will be responsible.
- Applying HACCP Principle 5 by developing corrective action procedures for deviations and failed critical limits.
- Managing product hold procedures, root-cause investigations, product disposition, and release decisions.
- Applying HACCP Principle 6 through verification and validation activities.
- Distinguishing between validation, which proves the HACCP plan works, and verification, which proves the plan is being followed.
- Applying HACCP Principle 7 through documentation and record control.
- Designing calibration schedules, record review protocols, verification records, and internal audit checklists.
- Workshop: managing a simulated critical limit failure, such as a pasteurizer temperature deviation.
- Practical activity: completing corrective action records and documenting follow-up decisions.
Day 5: HACCP Auditing, Plan Assembly, and Exam Simulation
- Assembling a complete HACCP plan using hazard analysis records, critical control point worksheets, monitoring logs, corrective action records, and verification documents.
- Consolidating day-to-day records, validation evidence, master sheets, and supporting documents into an audit-ready HACCP manual.
- Preparing for regulatory inspections and third-party food safety audits.
- Understanding audit expectations for BRCGS, IFS, and FSSC 22000 systems.
- Reviewing how auditors evaluate HACCP documentation, implementation evidence, monitoring records, and corrective action effectiveness.
- Building confidence in responding to audit questions and presenting HACCP evidence.
- Reviewing high-probability exam topics, key definitions, logic-based questions, and common traps.
- Conducting a comprehensive course review covering HACCP principles, prerequisite programs, hazards, critical control points, and documentation.
- Completing a timed mock exam based on official certification test style.
- Reviewing exam answers, performance gaps, and final improvement actions.
Why Attend this Course: Wins & Losses!
- Build the ability to develop a complete HACCP plan from initial preparation to final documentation.
- Strengthen understanding of Codex Alimentarius, FDA FSMA, EU Regulations, and local legal requirements.
- Improve readiness for official HACCP certification exams.
- Develop practical skills in hazard analysis and risk assessment.
- Identify biological, chemical, and physical hazards more accurately.
- Improve the ability to determine critical control points and critical limits.
- Build stronger monitoring and corrective action procedures.
- Understand validation, verification, documentation, and record review requirements.
- Improve audit readiness for regulatory inspections and third-party audits.
- Strengthen knowledge of good manufacturing practices, sanitation standard operating procedures, and operational prerequisite programs.
- Improve allergen management and cross-contact prevention controls.
- Gain practical experience through workshops, simulations, and mock exam practice.
Conclusion
The HACCP Plan Developer & Auditor course provides a complete and practical framework for building, implementing, verifying, and auditing HACCP-based food safety systems.
The course begins with regulatory foundations, good manufacturing practices, sanitation standard operating procedures, and operational prerequisite programs. It then moves into the preliminary HACCP steps, product descriptions, process flow diagrams, and hazard identification across biological, chemical, and physical hazards.
Participants then work through risk assessment, critical control point identification, critical limit establishment, monitoring systems, corrective actions, verification, validation, and documentation. The final day connects all components into a complete HACCP manual, audit preparation process, and official exam-style simulation.
By the end of the program, participants will be better prepared to develop HACCP plans, evaluate prerequisite program gaps, identify food safety hazards, conduct internal audits, prepare for third-party assessments, and approach official HACCP certification exams with stronger technical and practical readiness.
