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Specialized food processing methods

Certain food preparation steps have unique food safety risks that require extra caution to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Such processes include, but are not limited to:

  • Smoking foods for preservation
  • Curing foods
  • Acidifying foods to make a shelf-stable product
  • Packaging foods in a reduced oxygen environment (i.e., vacuum packaging)
  • Operating a live molluscan shellfish tank
  • Custom processing of animals
  • Sprouting seeds or beans

For these, and other specialized food processes, the Washington Food Code requires a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan to be implemented to mitigate the extra risks. HACCP Plans must be submitted to the Health Department and approved before specialized food processing can begin.

What is a HACCP Plan?

A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan is a management system used to identify specific food safety risks in a process and develop procedures to monitor and control those risks.  HACCP Plans include the following:

  • Hazard Analysis: Understanding risks associated with each step of your process.
  • Determination of Critical Control Points: What steps in your process must go correctly to support a safe end-product?
  • Establishing Critical Limits: For each Critical Control Point, what will you measure to determine whether or not the step is keeping food safe?
  • Establish Monitoring Procedures: How are you monitoring Critical Limits? How often? How will they be recorded?
  • Establish Corrective Actions: When a CCP's Critical Limit is not reached, how can this be corrected?
  • Establish Verification Procedures: How will staff ensure the HACCP Plan is being followed consistently? Who will do this?
  • Establish Record-keeping and documentation Procedures: How will records/log sheets be maintained? Who will do this?

Requirements to use a specialized food process

Before being allowed to conduct specialized food processes, a food establishment must demonstrate that they have a good food safety practices. This means having a recent inspection history with few or no critical health violations and demonstrating good Active Managerial Control at the Food Establishment. Check with your assigned investigator if you have questions about these requirements.

Developing a HACCP Plan

Below are resources that may be helpful in developing a HACCP Plan.

HACCP templates

Below are template plans for several common specialized processes. It is not required to use these templates when developing your plan, but it may help speed up the review process

Reduced Oxygen Packaging (Vacuum Packaging)

Other special processes

Applying for HACCP review

What to know before applying for a HACCP Review

  • Have your HACCP Plan that describes the specifics of your specialized process ready. You will be asked to submit this document during the application process.
  • The fee for Variance and HACCP reviews includes a base fee that covers one hour of review, with further review charged at our standard hourly rate. See the fee schedule: Environmental Health fees.

How to submit your application

Submit your HACCP Plan for review using the Public Health Permit Center. There are two options when applying for a HACCP Plan review. You can find these applications in the Public Health Permit Center by selecting “Apply,” and searching for the application names.

Food establishment – HACCP

Select this option if you are applying for one of the following specialized processes:

  • Reduced Oxygen Packaging of Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) Foods where the growth and toxin formation of C. botulinum and L. monocytogenes are controlled. This means vacuum packaged foods are kept at 41F, and meet at least one of the following requirements:
    • Has a water activity of 0.91 or less
    • Has a pH of 4.6 or less
    • Is a meat or poultry product cured at a food processing plant regulated by the USDA, received in an intact package
    • Is a food with a high level of competing organisms such as raw meat, raw poultry, or raw vegetables
  • Reduced Oxygen Packaging food using a cook-chill process
  • Reduced Oxygen Packaging food using a sous vide process
  • Reduced Oxygen Packaging of commercially manufactured cheese
  • Reduced Oxygen Packaging of fish ONLY when fish is frozen before, during, and after packaging.

Food Establishment – Variance and HACCP

If your specialized process is not described in the section above, then it is not explicitly allowed by the Washington Food Code, and requires a variance from the code. Select "variance and HACCP" when applying to provide extra details on how you will keep food safe, in addition to providing a HACCP Plan.