- Every food business that produces, processes or distributes food after primary production must put in place, implement and maintain one or more permanent procedures based on the HACCP principles (Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Article 5(1) and (3)).
- In Spain, Royal Decree 1021/2022 repeats this for retail, which expressly includes restaurants and hospitality, street trading and distance selling (Article 2.2.a). And it adds that each establishment must have a person responsible for applying it (Article 20).
- Whoever develops and maintains the procedure, or applies a sector guide, must have received adequate training in the application of the HACCP principles (Regulation 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter XII.2).
What you must be able to show
- Evidence that you comply, when the authority asks for it, in line with the size and activity of the business (Article 5(4)(a)).
- The documents describing your procedures, always up to date (Article 5(4)(b)).
- The records, kept for an appropriate period (Article 5(4)(c)).
If the product, the process or any step changes, the procedure is reviewed and changed (Article 5(2)).
The European Commission makes it clear that adequate training does not necessarily mean a formal course: information and advice from professional organisations or the authorities also count (Notice 2022/C 355/01, section 8).
In practiceYou open a tapas bar with a kitchen. You are the food business operator: your premises
need their own HACCP, which can be simplified, and a person responsible for applying it, who can be you or your head chef, trained
in the principles.
Source: Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs (consolidated text), Article 5 and Annex II, Chapter XII · Real Decreto 1021/2022, food hygiene in retail (consolidated text, in Spanish), Articles 2.2.a and 20 · Commission Notice 2022/C 355/01 on food safety management systems (good hygiene practices and procedures based on the HACCP principles), section 8