How to Set Up a Food Control Plan for Your Food Business in NZ

If you run a food business in New Zealand, chances are you need a Food Control Plan. Under the Food Act 2014, most food businesses that handle, prepare, or sell food are required to operate under an FCP. Some lower-risk businesses operate under a National Programme instead, but if you’re cooking and serving food, an FCP is what applies to you. This guide walks you through how to set one up, what’s involved, and how to keep it running properly.

What is a Food Control Plan?

A Food Control Plan is a written plan that describes what your food business does to make sure the food you sell is safe. It covers everything from how you receive ingredients to how you store, prepare, and serve them. It also includes your cleaning procedures, temperature monitoring, and what you do when something goes wrong.

Think of it as the rulebook your team follows every day to stay compliant with food safety law.

Who Needs One?

Most food businesses in NZ need an FCP. This includes restaurants, takeaways, bakeries, butchers, catering companies, food trucks, sushi bars, aged care kitchens, school canteens, and anywhere else food is prepared or sold to the public.

If your business is lower risk (like selling pre-packaged food only), you might be able to operate under a National Programme instead. Check the MPI website or talk to your local council if you’re not sure which applies to you.

Template FCP vs Custom FCP

If you want a deeper look at how the template system works, see our guide on FCP templates for NZ restaurants and food businesses.

There are two types of Food Control Plan:

Template FCPs use MPI’s Simply Safe & Suitable (SSS) template. It’s a single modular template with colour-coded cards that you select based on what your business does. You pick the cards that apply to your operation (food service, retail, or both), then customise them to match how you actually work. Most small to medium food businesses use this template. It’s designed to be straightforward to implement.

Custom FCPs are written from scratch for businesses with more complex operations. If you’re doing food manufacturing, specialist processing, or anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the SSS template, you’ll likely need a custom plan. These require a formal risk assessment (typically using HACCP methodology) but they cover exactly what your business does.

For most restaurants, takeaways, bakeries, and similar businesses, the SSS template is the right choice.

Step 1: Register Your Food Business

Before you set up your FCP, you need to register with your local council. This is a legal requirement under the Food Act 2014. Your council will confirm whether you need a template FCP or a custom one.

Step 2: Choose the Right Cards

MPI’s Simply Safe & Suitable template uses a colour-coded card system. You don’t fill in every card. You pick the ones that match your operation:

• Dark Blue cards cover your business setup and details
• Blue cards cover opening procedures
• Green cards cover food preparation
• Yellow cards cover cooking
• Orange cards cover serving and selling
• Purple cards cover closing procedures
• Red cards cover corrective actions (what to do when something goes wrong)
• Teal cards cover specialist food preparation if applicable

If your business does food service (restaurants, cafes, takeaways, catering), you’ll select the cards relevant to that. If you’re retail (butchers, delis, bakeries), you select the retail-relevant cards. Some businesses do both.

Read through the cards before you start filling them in. Understand what each one covers so you can tailor it to your actual operation.

Step 3: Fill In Your Plan

Go through each card you’ve selected and make it specific to your business. The template covers topics like:

• Business details: your name, address, type of food you handle, who’s responsible for food safety.
• Food safety procedures: how you receive deliveries, check temperatures, store food, prepare and cook, cool and reheat, and serve.
• Cleaning and sanitation: your cleaning schedules, what products you use, how often equipment gets cleaned.
• Pest control: how you manage pests, who your pest control provider is, how often they visit.
• Supplier details: who you buy from and how you verify their food safety standards.
• Staff training: how you train new staff on food safety, and how you keep records of that training.

Don’t just copy the template word for word. The whole point is that it reflects how your business actually operates.

Step 4: Set Up Your Daily Records

Your FCP isn’t just a document that sits in a folder. It requires ongoing daily records to prove you’re following it. At a minimum, you’ll need to record:

• Temperature checks: fridge, freezer, and hot-holding temperatures. Check at least daily, or as specified in your template cards.
• Daily opening and closing checks: things like checking food is stored correctly, surfaces are clean, and equipment is working.
• Corrective actions: what you did when something went wrong. If a fridge was too warm, what did you do about it? See our corrective action examples for how to write these properly.
• Cleaning records: proof that your cleaning schedule is being followed.

These records are what your verifier will look at during a verification visit. Missing records are one of the most common reasons businesses get an unacceptable outcome.

Step 5: Train Your Team

Everyone who handles food in your business needs to understand the FCP and know what they’re responsible for. This doesn’t mean sending them on a week-long course. It means making sure they know:

• What checks they need to do and when
• How to record temperatures and other daily logs
• What a corrective action is and when to raise one
• Where to find the FCP if they need to check something

New staff should be walked through the FCP on their first day. Don’t assume they’ll pick it up by watching someone else.

Step 6: Prepare for Your First Verification Visit

Once your FCP is in place, you’ll receive a verification visit. For businesses on the SSS template, your local council typically handles verification directly using their own verifiers. They’ll check that:

• Your FCP is complete and appropriate for your business
• Your team is following the procedures in the plan
• Your daily records are being kept consistently
• You’re handling food safely in practice, not just on paper

The best way to prepare is simple: actually follow your FCP every day. If you’re doing that and keeping your records up to date, the visit should go smoothly. For a full breakdown of what to expect, read our guide on how to prepare for a verification visit.

Keeping It Going

Setting up the FCP is the first step. Keeping it running is where most businesses struggle. Paper-based systems tend to fall apart over time. Records get lost, staff forget to fill things in, and by the time your next verification visit comes around, you’re scrambling to get everything in order.

Note: MPI updated the SSS template in August 2025. All businesses must be using the new version by 30 April 2026. If you’re still on the old template, now is a good time to update.

This is exactly the problem we built Verify to solve. It replaces your paper FCP with a digital system that guides your team through every daily check, keeps all your records in one place, and lets you export audit-ready PDFs whenever you need them. If you’re tired of chasing paperwork, it might be worth a look.