Food Control Plan Templates for NZ Restaurants and Food Businesses

If you’re setting up or running a food business in New Zealand, you’ve probably been told you need a Food Control Plan. For most businesses, that means using MPI’s template. If you’re starting from scratch, our step-by-step guide to setting up an FCP covers the full process. This guide focuses on the template itself — what it involves, how to set it up, and what you need to do to make it work for your operation.

What is a Template FCP?

A template Food Control Plan is a pre-written plan that covers the standard food safety procedures for food businesses. MPI (the Ministry for Primary Industries) provides a template called Simply Safe & Suitable (SSS) so that food businesses don’t have to write a plan from scratch.

The SSS template uses a modular card-based system. You select the cards that are relevant to your type of operation, go through each one, and adjust it so it matches how your business actually works. Once it’s set up, your team follows the procedures in the plan and keeps daily records to prove you’re doing what you said you’d do.

Who is the SSS Template For?

The Simply Safe & Suitable template covers two main types of food businesses:

Food Service

Businesses that prepare and serve food directly to customers. This covers restaurants, takeaways, cafes, catering companies, food trucks, sushi bars, and similar operations. If you’re cooking food and selling it to people, this applies to you.

Food Retail

Businesses that sell food with some handling or preparation involved. Butchers, bakeries with retail counters, delis, fishmongers, and similar setups. If you’re slicing, portioning, or doing light preparation before selling, this is your category.

Many businesses do a bit of both, and the SSS template handles that. You just select the cards from each category that apply to what you do.

What About Aged Care, Schools, and Hospitals?

Businesses that prepare food in a standard food service capacity (like a kitchen in a rest home or a school canteen) can use the SSS template. However, businesses that manufacture food specifically for vulnerable populations may need a custom FCP with a full risk assessment, as the requirements are stricter. Some sectors like aged care also have their own industry-developed Food Control Plans approved by MPI. If you’re unsure, check with your local council or verification agency.

How the Card System Works

The SSS template is organised into colour-coded cards, each covering a different part of your food operation:

• Dark Blue cards: Business setup and details (your name, address, type of food, who’s responsible for food safety)
• Blue cards: Starting/opening procedures
• Green cards: Food preparation (receiving goods, storing, handling)
• Yellow cards: Cooking (temperatures, time controls, reheating)
• Orange cards: Serving and selling (hot-holding, display, delivery)
• Purple cards: Closing procedures (end-of-day checks, cleaning)
• Red cards: Troubleshooting and corrective actions (what to do when things go wrong)
• Teal cards: Specialist food preparation (if applicable to your operation)

You don’t fill in every card. You pick the ones that match what your business does. A simple takeaway shop will select different cards than a bakery with a retail counter.

What Each Card Covers

While the specific content varies by card, here are the main topics covered across the template:

Receiving Goods

Checking deliveries are at the right temperature, packaging is intact, and products are within date. Your template card will walk you through what to check and what to do if something isn’t right.

Storage

How you store chilled, frozen, and dry goods. Chilled food must be stored at or below 5 degrees. The template covers temperature ranges, separation of raw and ready-to-eat food, and stock rotation.

Preparation and Cooking

How you prevent cross-contamination, minimum cooking temperatures (for example, poultry must reach at least 75 degrees at the core for 30 seconds), and how you handle allergens.

Cooling and Reheating

Safe cooling procedures (getting food through the danger zone of 5 to 60 degrees quickly) and reheating to at least 75 degrees before serving.

Serving and Display

How you keep food safe while it’s on display or being served. Hot food must be held above 60 degrees. The template also covers time limits using the 2-hour/4-hour rule: food that’s been in the danger zone for less than 2 hours can be refrigerated, between 2 and 4 hours it must be used immediately, and over 4 hours it must be thrown out.

Cleaning and Sanitation

Your cleaning schedule, what products you use, and how you verify that surfaces and equipment are actually clean. This usually includes a daily cleaning checklist and a deeper periodic cleaning schedule.

Corrective Actions

What you do when something goes wrong. If a fridge temperature is too high, what’s the process? If a delivery arrives damaged, what happens? The red cards give you a framework, but you need to fill in the specifics for your business. We’ve put together real corrective action examples if you need help writing these.

Supplier Information

Who you buy your ingredients from and how you verify they’re meeting food safety standards. This doesn’t mean auditing your suppliers. It means keeping records of who they are and making sure you’re buying from reputable sources.

Staff Training

How you train new staff on your FCP procedures and how you keep records of that training. Verifiers want to see that your team knows what they’re doing, not just that you have a plan on paper.

How to Customise Your Template

The biggest mistake businesses make with template FCPs is not customising them. A generic template that doesn’t match your actual operation is worse than useless because your team won’t follow it and your verifier will see right through it.

Go through each card and ask yourself:

• Does this match what we actually do? If the template says you check fridge temps at a certain frequency but your routine is different, adjust it and make sure you stick to it.
• Are there procedures we do that aren’t covered? If you smoke meat or do sous vide cooking, you’ll need to add procedures for that using the teal specialist cards.
• Are there cards that don’t apply? If you don’t do catering, don’t include the catering cards. Keep it relevant.

Your FCP should be a living document that accurately describes your business. Not a perfect document that nobody follows.

Keeping Your FCP Up to Date

Your FCP isn’t something you set up once and forget about. You need to update it when:

• You change your menu or start handling new types of food
• You change suppliers
• You get new equipment
• Your processes change
• You get feedback from a verification visit
• Regulations change

Most businesses review their FCP at least once a year, or whenever something significant changes.

Important: MPI updated the SSS template in August 2025 (version v39-00005). All businesses must be using the new version by 30 April 2026. If you’re still on the old template, you need to update before that deadline. Read our full breakdown of what changed in the template update.

The Records That Matter

Having an FCP is only half the job. The other half is keeping the daily records that prove you’re following it. This is where most businesses struggle, especially on paper.

Your verifier will want to see:

• Temperature logs that are filled in consistently, not backdated the night before the visit
• Daily checklists showing opening and closing procedures were completed
• Corrective action records showing what you did when something went wrong
• Cleaning records proving your schedule is being followed
• Training records for all food-handling staff

Records must be kept for at least 4 years, in English, legible, dated, and include the name of the person who did the task.

Missing or inconsistent records are one of the most common reasons food businesses get an unacceptable verification outcome.

Going Digital

Paper-based FCPs work, but they create problems over time. Records get lost, handwriting is hard to read, forms pile up in folders, and pulling everything together for a verification visit becomes a scramble.

Verify is a digital FCP platform we built specifically for NZ food businesses. You pick a template, customise it to your operation, and your team completes all their daily checks digitally. Everything is stored in one place, and you can export audit-ready PDFs whenever your verifier needs them.

If you’re spending too much time managing paper records, it’s worth trying. There’s a 30-day free trial with no payment required upfront.