RSPH Level 3 Understanding how to Develop a HACCP Plan is an Ofqual-regulated qualification (number 603/3653/5) issued by the Royal Society for Public Health. It is the qualification expected of HACCP team leads, technical assistants, quality team members and supervisors who actually build and maintain a HACCP plan — not just work inside one.

Retained Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 requires every UK food business (other than primary producers) to put in place and maintain a permanent procedure based on HACCP principles, and Codex Alimentarius and BRCGS expect the HACCP team to be appropriately trained. EHOs, BRCGS auditors and insurers will look for documented evidence that the people writing the plan are trained to a level appropriate to that responsibility — an Ofqual-regulated Level 3 qualification is the most common way of evidencing it.

This qualification is aimed at the people on the HACCP team — technical managers and assistants, quality team members, supervisors, head chefs and production team leaders who design or review the HACCP plan. Operational staff who work inside an existing HACCP system without building it are better suited to RSPH Level 2 Understanding HACCP.

Kitchen Tonic delivers Level 3 HACCP in three formats: a three-day live webinar via Google Meet, an in-house session at your premises, or a scheduled public classroom course. All three formats run to 21 guided learning hours across three days and finish with the official RSPH-supplied 30-question exam in two parts under invigilation.

The official RSPH specification covers food safety legislation and the legal context for HACCP, the 12 logical steps of HACCP (including the 7 HACCP principles), prerequisite programmes, hazard analysis, determining CCPs using a decision tree, setting and validating critical limits, monitoring, corrective action, verification, documentation and records, and the practical work of building a HACCP plan for a real food operation.

Assessment is a 60-minute paper with 30 multiple-choice questions, split into two parts, supplied and marked against the RSPH standard. The qualification is graded Pass or Distinction — Pass is 20 out of 30, Distinction is 26 out of 30. The exam is sat at the end of the final training day under invigilation by Kitchen Tonic, and certificates are issued directly by RSPH on successful completion.

There are no formal prerequisites set by RSPH, but the qualification is written for the HACCP team and assumes a working knowledge of food safety hazards and day-to-day food safety practice. Candidates already holding RSPH Level 3 Supervising Food Safety, or with hands-on HACCP experience, typically find the pace comfortable. Where prior learning is unclear, flag it on the pre-course call and the trainer will recommend any pre-reading.

There is no statutory expiry date for HACCP training in the UK, but the Food Standards Agency, BRCGS and most retailer codes of practice expect HACCP team training to be refreshed every 3 years, and the HACCP plan itself reviewed at least annually and whenever the process changes. Auditors will typically flag older training as a finding at site visits.