Introductory HACCP Training

About this course

What could make this food unsafe? Where can you control the hazard? What should you do if a check fails? These are the practical questions behind Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, or HACCP.

Work through everyday situations from New Zealand food manufacturing, hospitality and retail. Follow products from ingredients to finished food, spot gaps in a process, interpret monitoring results and decide what should happen to affected product.

You do not need previous HACCP study. The course introduces the terms first, then gives you opportunities to use them through guided examples, scenarios and knowledge checks.

The course includes 12 interactive lessons, workplace case studies, on-screen workbook prompts and a final exam. Plan for approximately four hours: 210 minutes of lessons and activities plus a 30-minute final-assessment allowance. This is self-paced learning, so you can take longer to revisit examples and practise. Breaks are additional.

Your workbook activities and worked debriefs are included within the lessons, so no downloads are required. Work through each prompt and compare your reasoning with the debrief. Personal practice responses are for self-review; they are not saved or submitted as a practical competency assessment.

The final exam has 30 multiple-choice questions. Complete the required learning and answer at least 24 questions correctly (80%) to receive an Access Food course-completion certificate. The course fee is NZ$60 plus NZ$9 GST: NZ$69 in total.

Who this course is for

• Food handlers and production staff who want to understand why food safety checks matter.
• Owners, managers and supervisors who are new to HACCP and want a practical introduction.
• New quality or food safety team members who need a clear starting point before more advanced study.
• People working in food manufacturing, kitchens, cafés, catering, bakeries, dairies, superettes and other food businesses.

Learning outcomes

• Explain HACCP’s purpose and recognise biological, chemical, physical and allergen hazards.
• Distinguish everyday prerequisite programmes from critical control points.
• Describe a product, its intended consumers and its process flow before analysing hazards.
• Use likelihood and severity to think through which hazards need control.
• Explain the seven HACCP principles and how they fit together.
• Read a site-approved critical limit and recognise whether the monitoring evidence meets it.
• Identify and control potentially affected food, report problems and understand corrective action.
• Distinguish monitoring, validation and verification, and recognise useful records.
• Recognise when a change in ingredients, processing, packaging or shelf life needs a food safety review.

Course outline

1. Why HACCP matters
2. Spot the food safety hazards
3. Build strong hygiene foundations
4. Know the food and its customers
5. Map the real process
6. Analyse the hazards
7. Choose the critical control points
8. Set meaningful critical limits
9. Monitor the process properly
10. Act when something goes wrong
11. Validate, verify and keep useful records
12. Run the whole process

How you will learn

Move through presentation-style slides at your own pace. Select topics to reveal more detail, work through practical scenarios and complete the knowledge checks along the way. The final exam presents one question at a time with an answer-review screen before submission. Your student account saves completed lessons and assessment results.

Assessment and completion

Complete all 12 lesson knowledge checks, then answer 30 multiple-choice exam questions, including practical scenarios. You need at least 24 correct answers (80%) to pass. Allow approximately 30 minutes for the exam. Up to three attempts are available in 24 hours, with at least 10 minutes for revision between unsuccessful attempts.

Access Food course-completion certificate for Introductory HACCP Training, awarded after completing the required learning and passing the final exam with at least 80%. This is an introductory course-completion certificate, not an MPI or NZQA qualification, ISO certification or approval of a business’s HACCP plan.

Before you enrol

No previous HACCP experience is required. Learners need their own student account, internet access and a device suitable for viewing the online lessons. Continue to follow your business’s applicable food safety plan and site procedures.