APPCC explained in English: the HACCP plan Spanish inspectors expect

What APPCC is

APPCC stands for *Análisis de Peligros y Puntos de Control Crítico*: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, or HACCP. It isn't a Spanish invention. It comes from Regulation (EC) 852/2004 on food hygiene, which requires every food business in the EU to have procedures based on HACCP principles. Spain applies it, and the regional health authorities (each *comunidad autónoma*, and in some big cities the town hall) are the ones who inspect.

In practice, when a Spanish inspector or consultant says *el APPCC*, they mean the whole self-control system (*sistema de autocontrol*): a written plan that describes how you keep food safe, plus the records that prove you do it every day.

The two layers: prerequisites and critical control points

A Spanish APPCC has two layers. The first is the prerequisite plans (*planes de prerrequisitos* or *planes generales de higiene*), the basic hygiene everything else rests on. The second is the HACCP analysis itself: the steps in your process where a hazard has to be controlled, called critical control points (*puntos de control crítico*, PCC).

Not every business needs every plan written at the same depth. A café that only serves coffee and pastries bought in has far less to control than a kitchen that cooks, cools and reheats. What matters is that the plan matches what you actually do.

The seven HACCP principles, in plain English

1. 1Identify the hazards at each step: biological (bacteria), chemical (cleaning products, allergens) and physical (glass, bones, metal).
2. 2Find the critical control points: the steps where control is essential, such as cooking to a safe temperature or cooling quickly.
3. 3Set critical limits for each one: for example, a core temperature of at least 70 °C when cooking, or fridges at 4 °C or below.
4. 4Decide how you'll monitor them: who checks, how and how often.
5. 5Decide the corrective action when a limit is missed: what happens to the food and what gets fixed.
6. 6Verify that the system works: review it, check probes are calibrated, look at the records.
7. 7Keep records: the written proof of all of the above.

What the inspector will ask to see

• The written plan, and whether it matches your real kitchen.
• Temperature records for fridges and freezers, and cooking or cooling where relevant.
• Cleaning records: what was cleaned and when.
• Pest control paperwork: the contract and the visit reports from an authorised company.
• Delivery notes or invoices that show where your products come from and their batches.
• Evidence of staff training.
• Allergen information for every dish you serve.
• Incidents and what you did about them: a fridge that broke down, a delivery you refused.

Working in English in a Spanish system

Your inspector will read your records in Spanish, so it's sensible to keep the plan and the inspection report in Spanish, or at least in both languages. Your team, on the other hand, fills in the daily checks more reliably in the language they think in. The two don't have to fight: in gramo you can use the app in English while your inspection report and labels come out in Spanish.

Common mistakes

• A plan bought off the shelf that describes a kitchen you don't have.
• Records filled in all at once before the inspection: same pen, same handwriting, no credibility.
• Records with no corrective actions: a fridge at 9 °C written down and nothing done about it is worse than no record.
• Allergen information that's out of date because a recipe or a supplier changed.
• Probes that have never been checked, so every reading may be wrong.

If you run a bakery or a production kitchen, see the specific control points in HACCP for bakeries. And to know what the visit itself looks like, read what happens in a health inspection in Spain.