Food safety for hotels and catering
Kitchens run to a system, with the records a municipal inspector or brand auditor asks for.
Hotels, caterers and restaurant groups need a food safety system their kitchens can run every shift, and records that satisfy municipal inspectors and brand standards. We build the HACCP plan and prerequisite programmes around the real kitchen, and train the staff who keep the records.
Records go missing at shift change
Kitchen food safety usually fails at shift change, not at the stove. The morning team logs fridge temperatures on one sheet, the banquet team on another, and the night team fills the gaps from memory. The HACCP plan was written once for a menu that has since changed, and nobody redrew the flow diagram when cook-chill desserts arrived for the banquets. An inspector or a brand auditor does not start with the plan. They open the walk-in, read the probe, and ask for the log entry that matches it.
- Temperature logs kept in three formats by three kitchens cannot be checked against each other
- Menus change faster than hazard analyses, so the plan describes food the kitchen no longer makes
- Banquets and outside catering add holding times and transport that the base plan never covered
- Brand standards arrive with their own audit checklist on top of the municipal rules
- Staff turnover means the person who was trained is often not the person on shift
What goes into the kitchen
HACCP
The plan built around the real menu and the real kitchen, with monitoring a busy shift can keep.
Read moreStandardISO 22000
The management system for groups running several kitchens or a central production unit.
Read moreServiceDocument control
One set of forms across every kitchen, with the current version the only one on the wall.
Read moreITF TrainingFood handler courses
Run on site for the people who keep the records, so the trained person is the one on shift.
Read moreITF HygienixKitchen cleaning chemicals
A no-rinse sanitiser for food-contact surfaces, from the Hygienix range.
Read moreThe people who check
| Requirement | What it means on site |
|---|---|
| Municipal licence and inspection | Food premises are licensed and inspected by the municipality. The evidence is read in the kitchen, from the probe and the log on the wall, rather than from an office file. |
| Brand standards | Hotel and restaurant brands audit their properties against their own food safety checklist, on top of the local rules. |
| HACCP plan | Hazards and critical control points for each production route: receiving, cold storage, cooking, cooling, hot holding, cook-chill, banquet service and outside catering. |
| Prerequisite programmes | Cleaning, pest control, supplier approval, water, waste and staff hygiene. This is where kitchens are usually caught out, rather than at a critical control point. |
| ISO 22000 | When a group wants one certified management system across several kitchens or a central unit. |
Questions from kitchens and caterers
Does a hotel kitchen need a HACCP certificate?
It depends on who is asking. SFDA's licensing guide names a HACCP certificate for food manufacturers. For a hotel or restaurant, the request usually comes from the brand, a corporate client or a catering contract, and that document names the standard it wants.
What does a typical engagement look like?
A hotel with three kitchens and a banquet operation, each keeping temperature records differently. We write one HACCP plan covering every production route, replace the three sets of logs with one, and add a supervisor check at each shift change. The hotel ends up holding one plan, one set of records its kitchens keep the same way, and a signed check per shift showing the records were read.
Our menu changes every season. Do we rewrite the plan each time?
No. The plan is written by process rather than by dish: receiving, cold storage, cooking, cooling, hot holding, service. A new dish usually slots into a process that is already controlled, but its ingredients and allergens are still checked against the hazard analysis. A new process, such as adding cook-chill, reopens it.
Can you train our kitchen staff?
Yes, through ITF Training, which runs food handler courses on site so the people who keep the records are the ones who learn how. Each attendee receives an ITF certificate of completion.
Part of one system
Every division keeps records to the same standard, so the second one you need works the way the first one did.
Start at the walk-in
The gap analysis starts in the kitchen, not the office: probes, logs and the plan read against what the kitchen actually cooks today. You keep the report whatever you decide.