Food control plan for caterers and venue kitchens in New Zealand

What a food control plan is and who needs one

The Food Act 2014 sorts food businesses by risk. Higher-risk businesses work under a food control plan. Lower-risk ones follow a national programme. MPI places food service businesses such as restaurants, cafes, takeaways and caterers, including those catering to schools, in the food control plan group.

A food control plan is a working document, not a certificate on the wall. It sets out how you keep food safe at each stage: buying from approved suppliers, storing, preparing, cooking, cooling, reheating, transporting and serving. It also says how staff are trained, how you clean and how you deal with problems such as a fridge breakdown or a sick worker.

For a caterer, the plan has to cover the way you actually work. If you cook in a commercial kitchen on Tuesday and serve a 200-guest wedding in a marquee on Saturday, the transport and service steps matter as much as the kitchen steps. A plan written only for the kitchen will not stand up when a verifier asks how food stays safe in a hot box for two hours.

Step by step

1. 1

   Check which plan you need

   If you cook or prepare food yourself, including meals, salads, sandwiches, cakes or desserts, you need a food control plan rather than a national programme. Use MPI's My Food Rules tool to confirm.

2. 2

   Choose template or custom

   Most caterers use the Simply Safe and Suitable template plan. You need a custom plan if you manufacture high-risk foods or need several Food Act registrations, and you can choose one if you want to set out your own processes.

3. 3

   Complete the plan and scope of operations

   Fill in the template sections for how you buy, store, cook, cool, transport and serve food, and complete the scope of operations form from My Food Rules. List off-site catering if you do it.

4. 4

   Register

   Send the registration form, scope of operations and fee to your local council if you operate in one council area. Custom plans, and businesses in several council areas, register with MPI.

5. 5

   Book your verifier

   Your registration authority tells you when the first verification visit is due, and new businesses are checked soon after registering. The verifier may come from your council or an independent agency.

6. 6

   Renew before it expires

   Renew your registration with the council or MPI each year, and keep the plan and its records up to date between visits.

Template plan or custom plan

MPI publishes a template food control plan called Simply Safe and Suitable, built for food retail, food service and catering businesses. You fill in the parts that apply to your business, keep the records it asks for, and register it. It is the quickest and cheapest route for most caterers and venue kitchens.

A custom food control plan is one you write yourself, or with a consultant, around your own processes. MPI says you will need one if you manufacture high-risk foods or need multiple Food Act registrations. Some businesses choose a custom plan because their methods do not fit the template, for example a large catering operation that cooks, chills and reheats food in bulk.

A custom plan takes more work before you can register. MPI asks for a completed registration form, a copy of the plan with site plans for every address you operate from, a report from an evaluator endorsing the plan, a letter from a verifier agreeing to verify you, and a scope of operations form.

Registering with your council or MPI

If you use the template plan and operate within a single territorial authority, your local council is the registration authority. You send the registration form with the scope of operations from My Food Rules, and pay the council's fee before it processes the application. Each council sets its own registration, renewal and verification fees and publishes them on its website.

If you operate in more than one council area, or use a custom plan, you register with MPI instead. A caterer with a central kitchen in one district and a café in another will usually fall into this group.

Registration is not permanent. It has an expiry date, and you renew it with whoever registered you before that date. Keep the renewal date in your calendar, because a registration that lapses usually means a brand new application, and in the meantime you are trading without the approval the Act requires.

What happens at verification

Verification is the check that you are actually following your plan. A verifier, who may work for your council or for an independent agency, visits your business, looks at your records, watches how food is handled and asks staff questions. New businesses are verified soon after registering, on the timetable your registration authority gives you.

How often the verifier comes back depends on how well you manage food safety and how complex your food is. A business with good records and a clean visit is checked less often, while one with problems is visited more often until it improves. A good result is worth real money in saved fees and time.

Verifiers look for the basics done consistently: records filled in on the day rather than in a rush before the visit, cleaning schedules followed, food stored and labelled properly, and staff who can explain what they do and why.

Off-site catering and venue kitchens

Off-site work is where catering plans most often fall short. Your scope of operations should list catering at other locations, and your plan should show how you keep hot food hot and cold food cold in transit, how long food sits out at a buffet, and what you do with leftovers. Write down the equipment you use, such as insulated carriers or chilled vans, and how you check temperatures on arrival.

Venues with their own kitchens need their own plan. If a venue only hires out the space and the client brings in an outside caterer, the caterer's plan covers the food. Some venues also offer a kitchen for hire to caterers; in that case agree in writing who is responsible for cleaning and pest control in the shared kitchen, because both businesses' verifiers may ask.

When you book an outside caterer, ask for their registration details and the date of their last verification. It takes a minute and protects your venue's name if something goes wrong at an event.

Keeping the plan and records working

The template plan comes with record sheets for things like deliveries, cooking and cooling checks, cleaning and staff training. Fill them in as you go. A verifier can tell the difference between real daily records and a week of entries written in the same pen the night before.

Review the plan whenever your business changes: a new menu with raw fish, a new chilled van, a second kitchen or a move into school lunches. A change in scope can mean a change in registration, so talk to your council or MPI before you start.

Your event paperwork also helps. Venura's catering and venue apps keep each booking with its menu, guest numbers, quotation, invoice and payment, on web, Android and iOS. When a verifier asks what you served at a function last month and for how many people, you can answer in seconds.

Food control plan: questions from New Zealand