The seven principles are the sequence a HACCP system is built in, and they are the same seven wherever you read them. What changes between businesses is the answers, not the questions. Working through them honestly for your own process is what turns a downloaded plan into a system an inspector will accept.
Principles one and two: analyse and identify
Conduct a hazard analysis of your process, then determine the critical control points. The first is a list of what could go wrong at each step. The second is the shorter list of steps where control is essential and can actually be applied, which is why a twenty step process rarely has twenty critical points.
Principles three and four: limits and monitoring
Establish critical limits for each control point, then establish a system to monitor them. A limit is a number or a state that separates safe from unsafe, such as a core cooking temperature. Monitoring is who checks it, how often, and with what.
Principles five and six: corrections and verification
Establish the corrective action when a limit is not met, then establish verification procedures to confirm the system is working. Corrective action is decided in advance so that the person on shift does not have to invent one. Verification is the periodic check that the whole thing still describes reality.
Principle seven: documentation
Establish documentation and records appropriate to the business. This is the principle that carries the legal weight in practice, because it is the one an officer can inspect. Records that are filled in weekly in one handwriting on the same pen are noticed.
What are the seven principles of HACCP, in the order they are applied
Conduct a hazard analysis, identifying the biological, chemical, physical and allergen hazards at each step and what will control them. Determine the critical control points, which are the steps where control is essential and failure is not recoverable later. Establish critical limits at each of those points, as a number rather than a judgement. Establish monitoring, saying who measures what, how and how often. Establish corrective action for the moment a limit is breached, decided in advance rather than improvised. Establish verification, which asks whether the system as a whole still works, by checking records, calibrating equipment and reviewing after any change. And establish documentation and record keeping proportionate to the business. The order matters because each principle depends on the one before it, and the usual error is naming critical control points before the hazard analysis has decided what is actually critical.
What a CCP food safety plan turns a hazard into
A critical control point is the step where a hazard the analysis found can actually be controlled, and losing control at it means the food is unsafe. That is the whole test, and it is stricter than it sounds: chilled storage, a cook step and a final temperature check are usually critical control points; hand washing and cleaning are usually prerequisites that the plan assumes rather than points it monitors. A plan naming twenty of them is a plan nobody will keep, because every one carries a limit, a monitoring routine, a correction when the limit is missed and a record. The discipline the principles ask for is to name few and monitor them properly.
Questions people ask about HACCP principles
What are the 7 principles of HACCP?
Hazard analysis, determine critical control points, establish critical limits, establish monitoring, establish corrective action, establish verification, and establish documentation and record keeping.
Do the principles have to be followed in order?
They are designed as a sequence and the later ones depend on the earlier ones, so yes in practice. Businesses that skip to documentation end up with records for points that were never critical.
Are there preliminary steps before the seven?
Codex sets out preliminary tasks such as assembling a team, describing the product and drawing the process flow. Larger businesses do them formally; small caterers do them implicitly when they complete an FSA pack.
Are the 7 HACCP principles the same as the Codex ones?
Yes. The principles in GB food law are the Codex Alimentarius principles, which is why guidance from other jurisdictions reads the same. What has changed over time is the wording and the surrounding guidance rather than the seven, and the 2020 Codex revision put more weight on prerequisite programmes, food safety culture and allergen management. If you are following the regulator's small business pack you are following the same seven, expressed as safe methods and diary sheets instead of a hazard analysis table.