HACCP team & product description
We help you name a trained HACCP team, describe each product, its intended use and consumers, and confirm the flow diagram on the floor during production.
HACCP consultant · Miami, FL
HACCP consulting that survives the auditor's questions
We write your HACCP plan with the people who run the process, validate every critical limit, and train your team to monitor, correct and verify on their own.
What does a HACCP consultant do? A HACCP consultant leads your team through the 5 preliminary steps and 7 HACCP principles: builds the process flow, analyzes biological, chemical and physical hazards, sets and validates critical control points and limits, and designs monitoring, corrective action, verification and record-keeping that your staff can run every shift.
Juan S. VargasSQF Food Safety Auditor · Exemplar Global
- Certified SQF auditorExemplar Global · 2024
- On-site, hands-onMiami-based · across the U.S.
- English & SpanishBilingual training
- Free 30-min gap callReply within one business day
The problem
Why HACCP plans fail audits and inspections
A HACCP plan rarely fails because a section is missing. It fails because the plan describes a process that no longer exists, a critical limit has no scientific support, or the operator on the night shift doesn't know what to do when a reading is out of range.
- Templates copied from another product, with hazards that don't match your ingredients or equipment
- Critical limits with no validation study, guidance reference or process authority letter
- Monitoring logs filled in at the end of the shift, not when the check happened
- Corrective actions that don't cover product disposition or root cause
- No verification: records nobody reviews, thermometers nobody calibrates
An auditor doesn't read your HACCP plan first. They walk the line and ask the operator.
What's included
What our HACCP consulting service includes
Hazard analysis
Biological, chemical (including allergens) and physical hazards evaluated for likelihood and severity at every step, with the reasoning written down so it can be defended.
CCPs & validated critical limits
Critical control points for cook, cooling, acidification, metal detection and other steps, each tied to FDA or USDA guidance, published studies or a process authority.
Monitoring & corrective actions
Who checks, how, how often and what happens when a limit is missed, including product hold, evaluation and disposition.
Verification & records
Calibration, record review, in-process and finished-product testing and an annual reassessment schedule, with forms your team will actually use.
Prerequisite programs
GMPs, sanitation (SSOPs), pest control, supplier approval, allergen control and environmental monitoring, because HACCP only works on top of them.
The method
The 7 HACCP principles, applied to your process
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is the preventive food safety system recognized by the Codex Alimentarius, the FDA and the USDA. This is how each principle becomes a working program in your plant.
| Principle | What it means | What we build with you |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Hazard analysis | Identify hazards reasonably likely to occur at each step | Hazard analysis worksheet with justification per step |
| 2. Critical control points | Steps where control is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard | CCP determination, documented with a decision tree |
| 3. Critical limits | Maximum or minimum values (time, temperature, pH, aw) at each CCP | Limits with scientific validation references |
| 4. Monitoring | Planned measurements to confirm the CCP is under control | Monitoring procedures and real-time logs |
| 5. Corrective actions | What to do when monitoring shows a deviation | Deviation procedure, product hold and disposition forms |
| 6. Verification | Activities that confirm the plan works as intended | Calibration, record review and reassessment schedule |
| 7. Record-keeping | Documentation that proves the system runs | Record retention rules and a filing system auditors can follow |
HACCP, HARPC or both? Seafood and juice processors are regulated under HACCP rules (21 CFR 123 and 120), meat and poultry plants under USDA-FSIS HACCP (9 CFR 417), and most other FDA-registered facilities under the FSMA Preventive Controls rule, which requires a food safety plan prepared by a PCQI. GFSI schemes like SQF and BRCGS require a HACCP-based plan in every case. See FSMA & PCQI consulting.
How we work
From flow diagram to verified HACCP plan
Walk the process
We walk receiving to shipping during production, verify the flow diagram and review existing plans, records and prerequisite programs.
You receive: gap report and verified flow diagram.
Build the plan with your team
Hazard analysis, CCPs, validated limits, monitoring and corrective actions written in working sessions with your HACCP team.
You receive: HACCP plan, logs and forms, validation file.
Train & verify
Bilingual training for monitors and supervisors, then a verification visit: records reviewed, operators interviewed, gaps closed.
You receive: training records, verification report, reassessment calendar.
Who it's for
HACCP plans we build most often
Ready-to-eat & cooked foods
Cook and cooling CCPs, post-lethality exposure and Listeria environmental monitoring.
Seafood importers & processors
Seafood HACCP, including histamine control and supplier verification for imported fish.
Juices, sauces & beverages
Juice HACCP 5-log pathogen reduction, acidified foods and hot-fill validation.
Bakery & snacks
Allergen cross-contact, metal detection and foreign material controls.
Produce & fresh-cut
Wash water sanitation, cold chain and traceability for Food Traceability List items.
Restaurants & commissaries
Florida food code HACCP for specialized processes: sous vide, curing, reduced-oxygen packaging.
Results
What a working HACCP system changes
CASE 01 · SAUCE & DRESSING MANUFACTURER
18,000 sq ft · Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Standard
- FSMA Preventive Controls + HACCP
- At gap analysis
- No written food safety plan
- At certification audit
- PCQI-led plan in place
- Outcome
- FDA inspection closed, no 483
8 weeks
Illustrative engagement · real client data pending authorization
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much does a HACCP consultant cost?
It depends on the number of products and processes, whether prerequisite programs already exist and how much on-site time is needed. A single-process plan with existing GMPs is a small project; a multi-line plant starting from scratch is a larger one. We quote a fixed scope after a 30-minute gap call.
Is HACCP certification required by law in Florida?
HACCP plans are legally required for seafood, juice, and USDA-inspected meat and poultry processors, and for some specialized restaurant processes under the Florida food code. Most other food manufacturers must meet FSMA Preventive Controls instead. Customers, however, often require a HACCP plan or a HACCP certificate regardless of the legal minimum.
How long does it take to develop a HACCP plan?
A plan for one product family usually takes 3 to 6 weeks including validation and training. Complex plants with several processes can take 2 to 3 months. Records showing the plan in operation are then needed before a certification audit.
What is the difference between a HACCP plan and a food safety plan?
A HACCP plan controls hazards at critical control points. A FSMA food safety plan (HARPC) goes further: it also covers process, allergen, sanitation and supply-chain preventive controls and a recall plan, and it must be prepared or overseen by a PCQI.
Do you train staff in Spanish?
Yes. We deliver HACCP team, monitor and supervisor training in English and Spanish, and write logs and work instructions in the language your operators use.
Free gap call
Have an audit on the calendar?
In 30 minutes we review your standard, your date and your most likely gaps, and tell you honestly whether you need us.
- +1 786 209 7451
- Mon–Fri · 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET
- jusevalu02@gmail.com
- 5.0 on Google
Juan S. VargasSQF Food Safety Auditor · PCQI
Request a gap call or a quote
Takes under a minute. Juan reviews every request personally.