BakerybenchFood Safety
Food safety in a bakery comes down to routines that you can write on a few pages: find the hazards, control them, and keep proof that you did. This section explains the method and the rules that apply to small producers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Why a bakery needs a food safety routine
Bread and cakes are not usually seen as dangerous foods. A bakery still handles raw flour, eggs, nuts and other allergens and, often, fillings that spoil. A routine turns these risks into steps that every employee can follow and that an inspector or a wholesale customer can check.
Where to start
- Learn the method. HACCP for Small Bakeries: A Practical Guide explains what HACCP is, which rules apply to you, the seven principles in a bakery, typical hazards, a worked example with a cream-filled pastry and a short checklist to start. It shows where the rules of the United States and the United Kingdom differ.
- Get allergens under control. Food Allergen Labeling for Small Bakeries (US and UK) lists the nine major allergens in the United States and the fourteen in the United Kingdom, explains how the rules differ for packaged, loose and pre-packed-for-direct-sale products, and shows how to handle cross-contact and "may contain" labels with an allergen matrix.
- Check what applies to you. Rules depend on your state, your city and your business model. The section on permits in How to Start a Bakery Business describes the federal frame set by the FDA and explains why your local health department has the final word.
- Know the federal duties. FDA Food Facility Registration and FSMA for Bakeries explains when a bakery has to register with the FDA and what preventive controls and the qualified facility rule mean.
- Keep the bakery clean and pest-free. Cleaning, Sanitation and Pest Control in Bakeries covers flour dust, the master cleaning schedule and integrated pest management.
Questions every producer should be able to answer
- At which steps could each of my products become unsafe, and what controls that step?
- Which allergens does each product contain, and how do I know after a recipe or supplier change?
- Where do I record temperatures of cooled and refrigerated products, and who checks the records?
- Which authority is responsible for my kitchen, and when did I last confirm what it expects?
The guides in this section help you answer them. They name the source for every rule, and they say where you have to ask your local authority because a rule differs from place to place.
Records are part of the work
A written routine is only as good as the records behind it. Recipes with exact weights, temperatures and times, the temperatures of cooled and refrigerated products, and the allergen matrix are the documents that inspectors and later wholesale customers ask for first. Keep them from the first day, and update them whenever a product, a supplier or a piece of equipment changes.
Related sections
For the raw materials side, including allergen status of ingredients, see Ingredients. For daily work in the bakehouse and shelf life, see Production. If you start from a home kitchen, Cottage Food Laws for Home Bakers is the first stop.