The Safe Catering Pack record sheets: SC1 to SC9, on paper or digital

The FSAI's Safe Catering Pack is how most small Irish kitchens meet the legal requirement for a HACCP-based food safety management system. It has two very different halves, and mixing them up is where most digital record-keeping goes wrong:

1. The plan. You work through each step of your operation, decide your controls, and sign the Declaration of Completion and Review. The FSAI says this declaration must be filled in and signed to show you're meeting your legal requirement to have a food safety management system. You write the plan once and review it when something changes.
2. The records. Nine recording forms, SC1 to SC9, that prove the plan is being followed day to day.

An app can take over a lot of the second half. It can't do the first half for you.

The nine Safe Catering recording forms

These are the forms as the FSAI lists them on its record books page. Each one can be downloaded free and printed, or bought as a record book.

A few details from the forms themselves are worth knowing:

• SC2 recommends checking fridge temperatures at least once per day, and notes some businesses check more often and also record freezers. The sheet has AM and PM columns for each unit, which suits a check at opening and another before close.
• SC2 gives two ways to measure: the food (a "dummy" food such as a pot of water, or a probe of the food itself) or the air (a probe in the unit or the display gauge). The target ranges printed on the form are 0°C to 5°C for chilled food and -18°C or colder for frozen.
• SC7 is for new food handlers on recruitment, existing staff, and anyone returning to work after illness. It asks about vomiting and diarrhoea in the last 48 hours, infected wounds or sores, and discharges from the eyes, ears or gums.
• SC8 suits a small kitchen where one chef does the deliveries, fridges, cooking and hot hold. In a larger kitchen, separate sheets are easier to share out.

Paper or digital?

The FSAI's guidance on HACCP principle 7 says appropriate documentation and records must be kept and be readily available, and that the aim is to maintain control without generating excessive paperwork. It doesn't say the records must be on paper.

So the question isn't "is digital allowed?" but "will these records convince an EHO?" Records on either medium fail for the same reasons:

A digital system earns its keep when it closes those gaps: a name and a time on every entry, a flag the moment a reading is out of range, and a history you can show without hunting for a folder.

What stays on paper (or in a file) either way

Even with every daily check on a phone, keep these:

• The completed safe catering plan and the signed, dated Declaration of Completion and Review, plus the date of each review.
• SC6 training records for each staff member, with copies of any certificates. The FSAI's Guide to Food Safety Skills also has an Employee Training Record you can use.
• SC7 fitness to work forms, kept privately since they hold health information.
• Supplier details and invoices, which help with traceability.
• Pest control contractor reports, if you use a contractor.
• Your HSE acknowledgement of notification letter.

What ShiftComplete covers, and what it doesn't

ShiftComplete is a roster and food-safety records app for hospitality. Here's how it lines up against the Safe Catering forms, honestly:

On top of the forms, ShiftComplete logs incidents and maintenance with a photo, severity and status, and produces a weekly rollup of task completion, temperature breaches and open incidents, with a full audit log you can export to CSV. Your allergen information sits against every menu item, searchable by front-of-house staff.

Kirkham Hospitality, our own hospitality group in Oswestry, built ShiftComplete inside its venues. "The rota stopped being a Sunday-night argument the week we switched over. The chef stopped being the only person who knows what's in the kitchen. And the EHO turn up to a screen, not a box file." Graeme Kirkham, Owner, The Lounge Oswestry & Knock & Snitch.

ShiftComplete doesn't replace your Safe Catering plan, and using it doesn't make you compliant: you stay responsible for your food safety management system. It helps you keep the records an EHO asks to see.

Switching from paper without a gap

1. Pick a start date at the beginning of a week, and keep the last paper sheets filed.
2. Set up every unit with the same targets your plan uses (0°C to 5°C for chilled, -18°C or colder for frozen, above 63°C for hot hold).
3. Match your check times to your plan. If the plan says twice a day, set it up twice a day.
4. Show every staff member once how to log a reading and what to do when it flags.
5. Update your plan to say where the records are now kept, and initial the review.
6. Tell your EHO at the next visit and show them the history.

Pricing

ShiftComplete costs €1.99 per active staff member per month, with every feature included. It's free for 60 days, with no card and no contract. Start a free trial or book a free 15-minute set-up call.