A useful corrective-action record says what failed, how control was restored, which food was affected, what happened to that food, why the failure happened, who took responsibility and how the fix was checked. "Temperature too high, monitored" is not enough. The record must show the decision and the evidence behind it.
The examples below are starting points for UK kitchens. Replace every sample limit and action with the one in your own food safety system, supplier instructions and national guidance. A food's time and temperature history matters, so an out-of-limit result does not always lead to the same disposal decision.
The short answer
When a check fails, protect customers first. Stop or adjust the process, identify and hold the food that may be affected, then use your documented procedure to decide whether it can be made safe, returned, used under a justified decision or disposed of. Record the cause, owner and follow-up check before closing the issue.
What HACCP Principle 5 requires
The FSA's official MyHACCP Principle 5 guidance says corrective actions should be planned in advance and carried out by nominated people when monitoring shows a critical limit has not been achieved. The response should restore control, identify and control the affected product, and investigate the cause. It should also say who has authority to rework, release or dispose of food and what happened to the affected batch.
Not every kitchen problem is a critical-control-point failure. A missed cleaning task may sit in prerequisite hygiene controls rather than at a CCP. It still needs a proportionate response and record when it could affect food safety. Use the terminology and escalation route in your own SFBB, CookSafe, Safe Catering or HACCP system.
A reusable corrective-action pattern
- Restore control. Stop, adjust or repeat the process so the control works again.
- Identify the affected food. Mark it and keep it separate from stock that is safe to use.
- Make an authorised product decision. Use the documented procedure and available evidence to decide whether to rework, return, release or dispose.
- Investigate the cause. Check the equipment, method, workload, delivery, training and supervision that contributed.
- Assign the follow-up. Name the person responsible and the deadline for repair, training or supplier action.
- Record and verify. Write down the actual result and check that control has been restored.
This separates the immediate food decision from the work that stops the same failure happening tomorrow. Food Standards Scotland's CookSafe guidance describes the same two jobs: deal with the food in question and prevent the problem recurring.
Six corrective-action examples for a kitchen
1. A fridge or chilled food is outside its limit
Example record: "Opening check found fridge 2 at 9.4°C. Moved unopened dairy and prepared food to working fridge 1, labelled the affected stock and stopped using fridge 2. Manager reviewed the previous good check, food temperatures and time history against our chilled-food procedure. Engineer booked. Fridge 2 returned to our set limit and was checked again before use."
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, cold food that requires temperature control must generally be kept at 8°C or below. The FSA recommends setting fridges at 5°C or below to allow for fluctuations. Scotland uses its own temperature-control rules and CookSafe asks businesses to set and follow the limits in their Temperature Control House Rules. Start with the FSA chilling guidance or the relevant CookSafe section, then document the limit that applies to your food and nation.
2. Cooking or reheating misses the documented limit
Example record: "Chicken batch C240 failed the first core check against our cooking limit. Kept the batch in the oven, extended the cooking step and checked three representative pieces with a cleaned and disinfected probe. Recorded the final results before release. Reviewed tray loading and retrained the cook on probe position."
Continuing the process may be appropriate while the food remains under control and your safe method allows it. Do not invent a new time and temperature combination during service. The FSA's SFBB caterers pack gives example combinations, while CookSafe sets Scottish examples and asks the business to write its own rule. Follow your validated method and product instructions.
3. Hot-held food falls below its limit
Example record: "Soup on hot hold measured below our set limit at 13:10. Removed it from service and checked when it was last known to be in control. Manager followed our hot-holding procedure and recorded the final food decision. Replaced the failed water bath, preheated the spare unit and verified the next batch after 30 minutes."
Do not write "reheated" without the time, result and reason the action was permitted. England, Wales and Northern Ireland guidance and Scottish CookSafe rules are not worded identically. Use the relevant national pack, including its limits on how food may leave hot holding, and record the actual path taken. The SFBB caterers pack and CookSafe Temperature Control House Rules set out those different routes.
4. Food does not cool as your method requires
Example record: "Cooked sauce did not reach the cooling target in the planned time. Labelled and segregated the container. Manager reviewed its complete time and temperature history and made the food decision under our cooling procedure. Future batches split into shallow pans, with maximum fill depth added to the method. Next batch met both checks."
CookSafe's temperature-control guidance says to cool hot food as quickly as possible and then refrigerate it. Your plan must turn that into a method your kitchen can repeat, with a justified limit for the food and process. A later fridge reading cannot prove the earlier cooling step was safe.
5. A cleaning or separation check fails
Example record: "Ready-to-eat bench had not been cleaned and disinfected after raw-food preparation. Stopped work in the area, segregated exposed ready-to-eat food, cleaned and disinfected the bench to the written method and verified it before restarting. Manager decided the fate of exposed food under the cross-contamination procedure. Added a handover check and retrained the two staff involved."
The cleaning fix is not a tick added after the fact. Record the affected area and food, the cleaning method completed, how the restart was approved and what changed. CookSafe's House Rules guidance distinguishes cleaning from disinfection and requires the business's rules to reflect how work is actually done.
6. A delivery fails a goods-in check
Example record: "Supplier A delivered six chilled packs with damaged seals and a spot-check outside the temperature stated in our receiving specification. Kept the goods separate, rejected all six packs, noted the product, batch, result and reason on the delivery record, and contacted the supplier at 10:25. Replacement accepted after a complete goods-in check."
A rejection should be traceable to the supplier, product, date, reason and follow-up. Use our UK restaurant delivery checklist to build the receiving check around your supplier agreement and food safety system.
What to write in a corrective-action record
- Date and time of the failed check.
- Food, batch, equipment or area affected.
- The expected limit or method and the actual result.
- Immediate action taken to restore control.
- How affected food was identified, held and finally dealt with.
- The evidence used for the food decision.
- Likely cause and the step taken to prevent a repeat.
- Name of the person taking the action and any manager authorisation.
- Verification result, time and person checking the fix.
For the wider record set that sits around these entries, use our food safety records checklist for UK restaurants.
When the same problem keeps coming back
Repeated corrective actions are evidence that the underlying control may not be working. MyHACCP says Principle 5 should be reviewed on a schedule and when the business changes. Look across the records for the same equipment, shift, product, supplier or process. Then revise and verify the method rather than accepting the same exception each week.
Verification should also check that the assigned repair, training or supplier follow-up happened. A signed issue with no follow-up is still an open issue.
Where Lemon fits
Lemon records temperatures, cook, cool, reheat and hot-hold food checks, deliveries, checklists and issues. It can then export those records as a PDF for review. See temperature logs and PDF reports. Lemon does not write the HACCP plan or decide whether affected food is safe. Your documented system and authorised people remain responsible for the limit, product decision and verification.
