1. Purpose and Scope
This procedure sets the food safety and hygiene standards for [Organisation Name] at [Site/Premises]. It applies to everyone handling food or working in food preparation and service areas, including temporary and agency staff, starting from their first shift.
This procedure works alongside our Food Safety Management System (FSMS). If this document conflicts with the FSMS, the FSMS takes precedence and this procedure must be updated to match.
Working through related paperwork at the same time? See also our US Food Safety SOP Template, Health & Safety Policy Template and NY Retail Worker Safety Act Policy Template.
2. Roles and Responsibilities
- Food Safety Lead ([Role]): Maintains the FSMS, oversees record-keeping, manages staff training, and serves as the primary contact for environmental health authorities.
- Shift Managers: Run daily opening and closing checks, enforce fitness-to-work rules, and handle corrective actions for any out-of-range results before service starts.
- All Food Handlers: Follow all hygiene rules, complete assigned checks accurately, and immediately report illness, pests, or unsafe conditions.
3. Personal Hygiene and Fitness to Work
- Wash hands thoroughly at designated hand-wash basins when entering food prep areas, after handling raw food, taking breaks, using the toilet, handling waste or cleaning chemicals, and touching money or personal devices.
- Wear clean protective workwear or aprons on every shift. Tie back or cover hair. Remove all watches and jewellery except a plain wedding band.
- Cover all cuts, scrapes, or wounds with a blue waterproof plaster. Report infected wounds or skin conditions to the shift manager before starting work.
- Report any vomiting or diarrhoea to the shift manager immediately. Do not enter food handling areas.
- Stay off food handling duties until you are symptom-free for [Period, e.g., 48 hours].
- Do not eat, drink, or use personal mobile devices in food preparation areas.
4. Cleaning Standards
- Check the master cleaning schedule at [Location] for specific areas, equipment, cleaning frequencies, approved chemicals, contact times, and assigned staff.
- Clean as you go during service to keep standards high.
- Dilute and apply sanitiser strictly according to manufacturer guidelines and required contact times.
- Follow the colour-coded equipment scheme:
- Red: Raw food preparation areas and equipment
- Blue: Ready-to-eat food preparation areas and equipment
- [Insert additional colour codes as applicable]
- Sign off completed tasks on the daily cleaning schedule. Shift managers must verify every task at the end of service.
- Log deep cleaning tasks (including pulling out equipment, cleaning extraction units, and clearing drainage systems) completed at [Frequency].
5. Temperature Control
- Check and log fridge and freezer temperatures at opening and closing against FSMS target thresholds.
- Check delivery temperatures for chilled and frozen goods before signing for them. Reject and log any items outside safe limits.
- Cook and reheat food to required target core temperatures. Insert a clean probe into the thickest part of the food to verify the reading.
- Clean and sanitise the probe before and after every use. Test probe accuracy at [Frequency] using the calibration method in the FSMS.
- Cool cooked food quickly using approved methods [e.g., shallow trays or blast chillers]. Move food to chilled storage within the FSMS timeframe.
- If a temperature falls outside the target range: tell the shift manager immediately, run the corrective action in the FSMS, and log what you did with the affected food.
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6. Cross-Contamination and Allergen Management
- Store raw and ready-to-eat foods separately at every stage. Always store raw meats below ready-to-eat items in fridges.
- Use dedicated equipment, utensils, and prep surfaces (separated by colour-coding or time) for raw and ready-to-eat foods.
- Keep an accurate allergen matrix at [Location] listing all menu items and their allergens. [Role] must update this matrix whenever recipes, ingredients, or suppliers change. Before selling the modified item.
- Label all food prepacked for direct sale with a full ingredient list and highlighted allergen information to meet legal requirements.
- When a customer declares an allergy or intolerance:
- [Role] takes ownership of the order.
- Check ingredients against the allergen matrix.
- Prepare the item using clean, sanitised equipment in a cleared workspace.
- Never guess allergen content. If you cannot verify the ingredients, check the matrix, talk to the Food Safety Lead, or decline the sale.
7. Daily Checks and Records
- Opening Checks: Check fridge/freezer temperatures, staff fitness for work, equipment operation, and workspace cleanliness. The opening shift manager must sign these off.
- Closing Checks: Check end-of-day temperatures, sign off cleaning schedules, clear all waste, and confirm food is covered, dated, and stored correctly. The closing shift manager must sign these off.
- Record Retention: File all temperature logs, cleaning sign-offs, delivery checks, corrective action logs, pest reports, and training records at [Location] for [Period].
- Log only genuine, completed checks. Falsifying monitoring records will trigger disciplinary action.
8. Incident Management
- Suspected Contamination or Food Complaints: Isolate the affected food immediately and keep it for inspection. Do not throw it away. Log batch numbers, date codes, and supplier details.
- Equipment Failure: Move stock immediately to working cold storage units. Measure and log food temperatures, then decide whether to keep or discard stock based on FSMS rules.
- Pest Activity: Stop work in the affected area, inform [Role], and contact [Pest Control Contractor].
- Notification: Report all incidents to the Food Safety Lead on the day they happen.
- Serious Escalations: Follow legal guidelines from food standards and local environmental health officers for formal incident reporting, product withdrawals, or recalls.
9. Training and Review
- All food handlers must complete an induction on this procedure before working unsupervised.
- Staff must complete formal food hygiene training suited to their role [e.g., Level 2 Food Safety], with refreshers run at [Frequency]. Store training records in [System/Location].
- We review this procedure at [Frequency, e.g., annually], or immediately after an environmental health inspection, food safety incident, or major change to menus or kitchen layouts.
Document Owner: [Role] Approved By: [Role] Last Review Date: [Date] Next Review Due: [Date]
FAQs on a food safety and hygiene procedure
What is a food safety and hygiene procedure?
A food safety and hygiene procedure sets the food safety and hygiene standards for your organisation at your site. It applies to everyone handling food or working in food preparation and service areas, including temporary and agency staff, starting from their first shift.
Having it written down means the same rules apply to everyone, so managers are not making judgement calls case by case under pressure.
What does a food safety and hygiene procedure include?
This template covers personal hygiene and fitness to work, cleaning standards, temperature control and cross-contamination and allergen management.
Every section is written to be filled in. The bracketed placeholders mark the decisions that are yours to make, such as timescales, approval owners and retention periods.
How to implement a food safety and hygiene procedure with Whale
Copy this template into Whale and work through the bracketed placeholders so it reflects how your organisation actually operates.
Assign it to the teams it applies to so it sits where people work rather than in a shared drive, and set a review date so it gets revisited on schedule instead of quietly going out of date.
Use our templates to fast-track your documentation
Customize this template and 100s of others for free in Whale, the fastest way to get your team aligned.