Developing your Food Safety Programme (FSP)

When you create your FSP you must set out appropriate record-keeping requirements and provide for a regular audit by a MPI-approved independent auditor.

Use the information below to develop a Food Safety Programme (FSP) and get your registration application ready to send to MPI.

How to write your FSP

You can find out basic background information and how to write your FSP in booklets that have been prepared by MPI.

This booklet gives you a brief outline of the concept of food safety programmes and describes the approval process.

An introduction to food safety programmes: managing food safety is your business (860 KB PDF)

You can find out about the basic concepts of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. The booklet also provides some practical steps to designing an FSP based on HACCP.

An introduction to HACCP (186 KB PDF)

This is where you can find detailed guidance on how to write an FSP for your business. It gives you logical steps to follow including points to consider, when writing your FSP

What does a food safety programme look like? Food Safety information for New Zealand businesses (219 KB PDF)

2 ways to create your FSP

There are 2 ways to create your FSP:

• Using a Code of Practice or a template, if one is available
• Write your own from scratch –. that is a custom-made or tailored FSP.

Base your FSP on a COP or template

You can develop an FSP from a Code of Practice (COP) to suit your own business. Check the link below, or ask your food industry association if there is a Code of Practice to cover your operation.

Codes of Practice

If you sell red meat at stalls, there is a template to base your FSP on.

Meat at Stalls Food Safety Programme (289 KB PDF)

Write your own FSP

Often there is no COP or template to suit your business, so you will need to write your FSP from scratch. As well as the booklets mentioned already, the checklist for asssessors will help you collect the information you need.

Once you have written your FSP, use the checklist again to make sure it meets the requirements under the Act. It is a good idea to include the completed checklist with your application as it will help with the assessment process and may reduce your assessment cost.

Checklist for assessors of Food Safety Programmes (42 KB XLS)

Get help developing your FSP

If you need help writing your FSP you can contact one of the following:

• your specific industry association
• an FSP consultant
• the New Zealand Institute of Environmental Health Inc website, which has advice on selecting a consultant.

Industry associations

Food Safety Programme Consultants

New Zealand Institute of Environmental Health: Service Providers (External website)

Next steps

When you have developed your FSP, you need to register it with MPI.

You can find out more on the Registering your FSP page in the left-hand menu and more about FSPs in general on the Documents page.

Register your FSP