HACCP logs are the records that prove a kitchen keeps food safety hazards under control: fridges stay within range, staff start the shift healthy, ingredients are accepted with proper documents, and dishes are checked before service. A typical set for a cafe or restaurant includes a fridge and freezer temperature log, a goods receiving log, a finished-dish check log, a staff health (hygiene) log, a frying oil log, and cleaning and disinfection records. Below is what goes into each log, who should keep it, and how a digital HACCP log differs from a paper one.

Why a food business needs HACCP logs

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is a system in which a business identifies the hazardous steps in its process — the critical control points — and monitors them on a schedule. It is based on the Codex Alimentarius General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969), and many countries require food businesses to apply HACCP principles and keep monitoring records. In Kazakhstan, Russia and other Eurasian Economic Union countries, this comes from technical regulation TR CU 021/2011 "On Food Safety" and national sanitary rules for catering, which allow records on paper and/or in electronic form.

A log is not a report for the inspector — it is a working tool. A good log answers three questions:

what was measured — temperature, appearance, documents;
who and when — name, date, time;
what was done when something was wrong — the corrective action: product moved, technician called, batch discarded.

The last column is the one most often left empty. A "9 °C" entry with no action tells the inspector that the problem was seen and ignored.

For the basics of the system itself, see What is HACCP.

Typical HACCP logs

These logs appear in almost every kitchen. Which ones are mandatory for you depends on your country, the type of operation and your food safety plan. Some forms in sanitary rules apply only to institutional catering (schools, kindergartens, hospitals); for other businesses they are recommended or left to the operator. Always check the current rules in your country and your own HACCP plan.

Log	What is recorded	Who keeps it	How often
Fridge and freezer temperatures	temperature of each fridge, freezer, cold room	shift cook, storekeeper	daily, usually at the start and end of the shift
Storeroom temperature and humidity	temperature and relative humidity in dry stores	storekeeper	daily
Goods receiving	supplier, product, documents, use-by date, delivery temperature, condition	storekeeper, chef or sous-chef	every delivery
Finished-dish check	dish, time, sensory assessment, release for service	chef, sous-chef or tasting panel	before each batch is served
Staff health (hygiene) log	pre-shift check: skin on hands, signs of infection, fit to work	shift manager, chef, medical staff	daily before the shift
Frying oil	oil check before and after frying, changes, disposal	hot-line cook	daily and at each change
Cleaning and disinfection	what was cleaned, product used, solution strength, time	person in charge of cleaning	per cleaning schedule
Deep cleaning	tasks done, who did them, who signed off	manager	per schedule
Pest control	treatments, trap checks, signs of pests	responsible person + contractor	per contract and programme
Retained samples	dishes, sampling time, who took them	chef or responsible person	daily, where required

Fridge temperature log

The most common log and the most common inspection finding. Each fridge gets its own line: date, time, thermometer reading, signature. Kazakhstan's sanitary rules for catering, for example, explicitly require daily monitoring of temperature and humidity in fridges, cold rooms and storerooms, recorded on paper and/or electronically. Take the acceptable range from the manufacturer's storage conditions and your national rules.

Recording a number is not enough — the log should also say what was done when the reading was out of range. How to set up the log, which ranges to use and how not to miss readings is covered in our article on the temperature log.

Goods receiving log

Filled in at delivery: product name, supplier, document number and date, production date and use-by date, storage conditions, inspection result, decision (accepted or rejected) and signature. Every batch should come with shipping documents and proof of conformity; without them, the product is not accepted.

For a step-by-step check at delivery, use the goods receiving checklist.

Finished-dish check log

Before service, the responsible person (chef, sous-chef or tasting panel) assesses dishes by appearance, texture, colour, smell and taste and decides whether they can be served. The log records the cooking time, dish, assessment result, release time and signatures. In Kazakhstan this record is explicitly mandatory for institutional catering; for a restaurant it is useful proof that every dish was checked before it reached the guest.

Staff health (hygiene) log

This log records the daily pre-shift check of staff: no pustular skin conditions on the hands or exposed skin, no cuts or burns, no signs of gastrointestinal or respiratory infection. The result and fitness for work are recorded. Staff must also report symptoms of illness themselves — anyone with symptoms is kept away from food handling.

Alongside the log, track each employee's medical clearance and food hygiene training dates — expired documents are among the most frequent findings. A practical tool for this is the pre-shift staff hygiene checklist.

Frying oil log

Frying oil is checked for taste, smell and colour before and after frying. Kazakhstan's rules, for instance, require a daily check, prohibit using oil with a sharp unpleasant smell, bitter taste or heavy darkening, and require oil-change records to be kept for at least three months. The log includes the date, fryer, assessment before and after, decision (keep using or change) and who checked.

Cleaning, disinfection and pest control logs

These record what was cleaned, with which product, at what concentration and by whom. They include the disinfectant solution log, the deep-cleaning schedule and pest control records, usually kept together with the contractor: treatment reports, trap map and inspection results.

Who keeps the logs

A good rule: one log, one owner.

shift cook — equipment temperatures in their section, frying oil;
storekeeper or receiver — goods receiving, storeroom temperature;
chef or sous-chef — finished-dish checks, review of kitchen logs;
manager — staff health log, medical documents, cleaning, completion control;
HACCP lead — reviews records, handles deviations, revises the plan.

Assign responsibilities in writing. If a log belongs to "everyone", nobody keeps it.

Paper or digital HACCP logs

The sanitary rules in Kazakhstan and Russia explicitly allow both paper and electronic records, and many other countries accept digital records too. The difference is reliability.

	Paper log	Digital HACCP log
Entry time	anything, can be back-filled	recorded automatically
Missed entry	visible only when someone reads the log	visible at once, with a reminder
Out-of-range value	just another line	instantly a deviation and a task
Corrections	crossings-out, correction fluid	with a reason and history
Multiple sites	logs scattered across kitchens	all sites in one place
Printout for inspection	already on paper	export of the form for any period

The main weakness of paper logs is that they get filled in "from memory" at the end of the week. Inspectors notice: identical numbers, one handwriting, one pen. A digital log with automatic timestamps and edit history removes the problem.

If you stay on paper, at least:

Keep the log next to the equipment, not in the office.
Fill in the "Action taken" column whenever there is a deviation.
Review the logs weekly for gaps and suspiciously identical values.

Common inspection findings

Several days of entries written in one go by one person.
A "perfect" temperature every day — so it was never measured.
A deviation recorded with no action.
Thermometers not verified or calibrated.
A log form that doesn't match what the kitchen actually does.
Expired medical clearances despite a completed health log.

A daily walk-through with the daily HACCP kitchen checklist helps you catch these before the inspector does.

How it works in jeCheck

In the HACCP module, staff fill in logs on a phone or tablet in the kitchen, and regulations, forms and limits are set by a country profile — Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan or international.

Log templates: storage, staff health checks, finished-dish checks, cooking, hot holding, frying oil, receiving, cleaning; build your own logs in the editor.
Schedules and reminders: at the start of a shift, at set times or on an event; missed entries show up immediately.
The server records the entry time; edits require a reason and keep a history.
A value outside a critical limit opens a deviation that can't be closed without a correction, product disposition, root cause and preventive measure.

Logs for any period can be printed in the required form for an inspector. See the module in action in a demo.

HACCP Logs for Restaurants: Which to Keep and How