Guidelines for Submitting a HACCP Plan at a glance
What it is: Guidelines for Submitting a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan.
Where and when to file: Plans and specifications must be submitted to the Department when a person proposes to construct, remodel or alter a food establishment, or convert or remodel an existing building for use as a food establishment.
What to bring and attach to Guidelines for Submitting a HACCP Plan
Menu or foods: Provide a copy of the menu or a written description of the foods to be prepared and served.
Food service system: Specify the food preparation and service systems you will use, i.e. cook-serve, cook-chill-reheat-hot hold-serve, cold hold-serve.
Population served: Specify whether you will serve food in a health care facility, as defined in COMAR 10.15.03.02B(38).
A filled-in Guidelines for Submitting a HACCP Plan example: a cafe fills out the Example #1 Form for cooking
How to fill out Guidelines for Submitting a HACCP Plan, box by box
Facility, Preparer and Date
Enter the Facility, Preparer and Date.
CCP and Critical Limits
The plan must include identification of Critical Control Points (CCP): CCPs generally include cooking, cooling, reheating, cold holding (when not followed by a kill step), and hot-holding, but other steps may be included, if needed for a specific food.
Cold food preparation, like chopping, mixing and slicing, are not CCP steps.
The plan must include critical limits for each CCP.
Poultry cooked to 165°F for 15 seconds.
Monitoring and Corrective Actions
The plan must include monitoring procedures for each CCP.
The plan must include the corrective action(s) that will be taken if there is a loss of control at a CCP due to such factors as employee error, equipment malfunction, power failure, or any other factor that causes loss of control at a CCP.
Verification, Equipment and Menu items using this CCP
Verification procedures, by a person in charge, will ensure proper monitoring of each CCP such as calibration of cooking and holding equipment and thermometers, and maintenance and review of records such as temperature logs.
Using logs for record keeping is strongly encouraged but not required, as long as the facility can demonstrate that temperatures are routinely monitored, as described in the HACCP plan, and that specified corrective actions are taken when critical limits are not met.
The plan must include a list of equipment used to support the proposed food service systems and maintain control at each CCP.
Examples of acceptable methods include listing each CCP separately, with the menu item(s) that utilize the CCP, the critical limit(s), monitoring procedure(s), corrective action, verification method(s) for that CCP, and the equipment used to control the CCP (see attached example #1).
More rules for Guidelines for Submitting a HACCP Plan
This information will be used to classify the facility as high, moderate, or low priority.
The plan must include written procedures for employee training on HACCP procedures (see attached example in section "F").
The HACCP plan for your facility should be developed in a format which is easy for your employees to use (charts, diagrams, examples provided or another acceptable format that incorporates all the requirements).
Once approved, this document must be readily available in the food preparation area of each facility.
For certain specialized processes, a process review completed by a process authority may be required.
If your situation is different
The facility is high or moderate priority
A HACCP plan is required for all high or moderate priority facilities and must be updated and approved by the approving authority every 5 years (from the date of last HACCP plan approval), as well as, before a new process is implemented.
A person proposes to construct, remodel or alter a food establishment
Plans and specifications for the building and equipment, and information regarding the foods to be prepared, processed, or manufactured are required.
The facility sells only the foods listed
Facilities selling only hand dipped ice cream or commercially packaged potentially hazardous foods directly to consumer and non-potentially hazardous food that is cut, assembled or packaged on the premise such as candy, popcorn and baked goods do not require a HACCP plan.
Sources
[1] Guidelines for Submitting a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan (July 2016), Maryland Department of Health (the Official source link on this page).