HACCP to Codex, twelve steps
Two days that end with a drafted HACCP plan for a product you actually make.
- Duration
- 2 days, 14 contact hours
- Level
- Implementation
- Standard
- Codex CXC 1-1969 Rev. 2022
- Prerequisites
- Basic food hygiene. Take the handler course first if none
- Assessment
- Assessed HACCP plan exercise plus a written assessment
- Certificate
- ITF certificate of completion
A two-day HACCP course following the Codex Alimentarius General Principles of Food Hygiene, CXC 1-1969 Rev. 2022. Delegates work through all 12 application steps including the 7 principles and leave having drafted a plan for a real product.
- 01 Enquiry
- 02 Needs analysis
- 03 Programme design
- 04 Scheduling
- 05 Delivery
- 06 Assessment
- 07 Certification
- 08 Records
HACCP to Codex, twelve steps sits at step 5 of the delivery cycle. You receive course materials and an attendance record.
The step everybody skips
Step 5 is on-site confirmation of the flow diagram. It takes an afternoon, it costs nothing, and it is missing from a great many HACCP plans.
The flow diagram gets drawn in a meeting room from what people believe happens. Then nobody walks the line with it. So the plan is built on a process that does not exist: a rework loop nobody drew, a second chiller that gets used when the first is full, a bypass around the metal detector that only runs on one shift.
Every hazard analysis downstream of that diagram inherits the error. The CCPs are placed on the process as imagined. The critical limits are set for a flow that is not the flow. The monitoring records are honest and they are monitoring the wrong thing.
This course spends three and a half hours on steps 1 to 5 for that reason, and on your site the flow diagram gets walked and verified on the actual line.
Two days, session by session
Twelve steps with practical work do not fit in one day. Two days is the honest length.
| Session | What is covered | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 · Codex Rev. 2022 | The two-chapter structure, good hygiene practices first and HACCP second, and what the current text carries that older plans often lack: food safety culture, allergen management, and firmer expectations on training and validation. | 0:45 |
| Day 1 · The GHP foundation | Premises, equipment, cleaning, pest control, personal hygiene, water, waste, maintenance and transport. Without these, HACCP fails and the plan is decorative. | 2:00 |
| Day 1 · Hazard types | Biological, chemical, physical and allergen, plus radiological where relevant. | 0:45 |
| Day 1 · Steps 1 to 5, the preliminary work | Assemble the team, describe the product, identify intended use and vulnerable consumers, construct the flow diagram, and confirm it on site. Practical throughout. | 3:30 |
| Day 2 · Steps 6 to 12, the seven principles | Hazard analysis and control measures, CCP determination using the Rev. 2022 tools rather than the old decision tree alone, validated critical limits, monitoring, corrective actions, validation and verification, documentation and record keeping. | 4:30 |
| Day 2 · Building the plan document | Delegates draft a HACCP plan for their own product, with feedback at each stage. | 1:30 |
| Day 2 · Review and reassessment | Plan review triggers, reassessment after change, and the questions a HACCP plan gets asked in an audit. | 1:00 |
The documents you walk out holding
A HACCP plan template and hazard analysis worksheet
The working documents, not a slide export. Structured so the reasoning behind each decision is recorded alongside it.
A CCP determination aid, Rev. 2022
Based on the Rev. 2022 tools rather than the decision tree alone, which is where many inherited plans went wrong.
A monitoring and verification record set
The forms a CCP actually needs: monitoring, correction, verification and the review signature.
The drafted plan for your own product
Built during day two when the course runs on your site. It needs finishing, and it is a real starting point rather than a template with your name on it.
A ITF certificate of completion
Per delegate, naming the assessment passed.
From the room to the line
- 01
Establish whether the GHP foundation is actually in place
Before writing a plan. A HACCP plan on top of broken prerequisites transfers the whole load onto the CCPs.
- 02
Construct and verify a flow diagram on site
Including the rework loops, the bypasses and the second-shift variations nobody draws.
- 03
Run a hazard analysis across four hazard classes
Biological, chemical, physical and allergen, with the reasoning recorded so it can be reviewed later.
- 04
Determine CCPs with a structured method
Using the Rev. 2022 tools, and being able to explain why a step is not a CCP as well as why one is.
- 05
Set critical limits that are measurable and justified
Justified means there is a source. A number nobody can attribute is one of the most common findings against a plan.
- 06
Know when the plan must be reassessed
Product, process, equipment, supplier or regulation change. Many plans expire silently rather than being reviewed.
A paste line the plan never saw
A dates processing and packing plant in the Eastern Province has a HACCP plan written four years ago. Since then it has added a paste line, changed its fumigation contractor and started exporting, and nobody has reassessed the plan.
The QA supervisor who owns the plan joined last year, so the two days were built on the paste line. On day one the team drew the flow diagram in the training room, then walked it on the line after Asr and redrew it, adding the rework return the original diagram left out.
Day two's hazard analysis worked through the new line and the export customer's allergen questions. The plan draft recorded the reasoning behind each CCP decision, so the next reviewer can follow it.
The plant ended up holding a verified flow diagram, a draft plan for the paste line with a hazard analysis worksheet, a list of the review triggers it had missed, and a certificate per team member.
Pick the group closest to your product
The people who will own the plan
The named HACCP team, ideally together. Production, QA, maintenance and hygiene, because the flow diagram needs all four to be correct.
- Draft a plan for your own product rather than a worked example
- Verify the flow diagram on your own line
- Record the reasoning so the next reviewer can follow it
Supervisors in manufacturing and catering
QA and production supervisors in food manufacturing, central kitchens and catering who run the monitoring and sign the records.
- Know why each monitoring record exists and what it proves
- Act correctly when a critical limit is breached
- Spot a CCP that is being monitored in the wrong place
Storage and distribution
Food warehouse and cold store supervisors. Temperature is usually the only CCP, which makes it the one that matters completely.
- Set and justify a temperature critical limit rather than inheriting one
- Design monitoring that catches a failure while the product is still recoverable
- Handle a temperature excursion as a correction with evidence
Anyone handed a consultant's plan
The most common delegate on this course. Someone wrote the plan three years ago, left, and nobody since has known what to do with it.
- Review an inherited plan against what the site actually does now
- Find the steps where the plan and the process have diverged
- Decide what to rewrite and what to keep
Asked before a HACCP course is booked
Is HACCP required in Saudi Arabia?
For a food manufacturer, SFDA's licensing guidance lists a HACCP certificate from an accredited certification body among the operating licence documents. That certificate comes from an audit, not from a course. This course trains the team that builds and runs the plan the audit looks at.
Our HACCP plan was written by a consultant three years ago. Is it still valid?
Only if it has been reassessed after any change to product, process, equipment, supplier or regulation, and verified since. The course covers how to review an inherited plan, which is what most delegates actually need rather than how to write one from nothing.
How many CCPs should we have?
There is no target number. A plan with fifteen CCPs usually means OPRPs and good hygiene practices have been misclassified upward. A plan with zero usually means the hazard analysis was not done. The course teaches the reasoning, not a number.
Do you cover allergen management?
Yes. The current Codex text gives it a firmer place, and it runs through the hazard analysis, the good hygiene practices chapter and the labelling controls. It is treated as a hazard class, not as a labelling afterthought.
Is the certificate recognised?
It is an ITF certificate of completion, and it records that the participant attended and met the assessment criteria on the day. It is not an accredited qualification. It is the kind of evidence a management system asks for under ISO 9001 clause 7.2 and its equivalents. If your buyer or regulator names a certificate issued under an accreditation scheme, tell us at enquiry and we will say plainly whether ours fits.
Can you run it in Arabic?
Yes. Arabic, English, or Arabic delivery with English material, which is the usual request for a mixed room. Confirm the language when you book, because it decides which trainer and which handouts are scheduled.
Do you come to our site?
Yes, and it is the default. On your site the exercises run on your own documents and processes, and the participants lose no travel time. We need a room, a screen, and the participants released from the floor for the whole session.
How many people can attend?
Awareness courses work up to about 20. Courses with assessed practical work cap at about 12 to 15, so every person does the exercise rather than watching it. These caps are our teaching judgement, not an external rule.
Who delivers it?
Practising auditors. The people teaching these courses spend their working weeks inside factories, warehouses, kitchens and offices carrying out audits, and the examples in the room come from that work. The standard every trainer meets is set out on the trainers page.
What if someone misses a day, or does not pass?
There is no certificate for partial attendance or a failed assessment. The participant can join the missed day or retake the assessment on a later run, and we tell you which person and why. We would rather report a gap than issue a record that says something untrue.
The food safety sequence
Food safety for food handlers
The half day underneath this one, for delegates with no food hygiene background.
Read moreAwarenessISO 22000 food safety awareness
The management system that a HACCP plan sits inside when a buyer asks for certification.
Read moreImplementationFSSC 22000 scheme requirements
The GFSI scheme layer, for sites whose retail customers named it.
Read moreConsultHACCP, built with you
When the plan and its records need writing for an SFDA licence file. ITF Consult.
Read morePart of one system
Every division keeps records to the same standard, so the second one you need works the way the first one did.
Draft the plan in the room
A HACCP plan is only as good as the prerequisite programmes under it and the records over it, and those three usually need work together. Tell us the product and the process and we will say what the two days should be built on.