A guest with a documented nut allergy is sitting at a table where you are about to serve a buffet, a canape round and a plated dessert, in a room with eleven other guests. Nothing you do tonight matters more than this. Food-safety leadership is not paperwork; it is the system that stops that guest going to hospital in a tender.
HACCP in practice
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is the framework behind virtually every commercial food-safety system, and yachts operate a food-safety management system built on it. In practice it means:
- Identify the hazards at each step: receiving, storing, preparing, cooking, chilling, holding, serving.
- Identify the critical control points where a hazard can actually be controlled: cooking, chilling, hot and cold holding, receiving.
- Set a critical limit at each point, defined by your yacht's system and the rules of your flag and port state.
- Monitor it, record it, and define the corrective action when a limit is breached.
The principle to carry is this: keep food out of the temperature range where bacteria multiply, minimise the time it spends there, and prove it with records. The specific figures and holding times are set by the yacht's food-safety management system and the applicable flag and port state rules. Follow those, not a number you half-remember.
Temperature logs
- Log fridge and freezer temperatures on the yacht's defined rhythm, and log cooking, chilling and holding temperatures where the system requires it.
- Record the actual reading, at the time it was taken, by the person who took it. Filling in a log retrospectively is falsification.
Allergen control at scale
| Control | In practice |
|---|---|
| Know | A single consolidated allergen sheet, by guest and seat, that galley and interior both work from |
| Separate | Dedicated boards, utensils, cloths and prep space; the allergen dish prepared first, on clean surfaces |
| Protect | The allergen plate covered, labelled and carried separately, placed by the person who checked it |
| Communicate | Named at the brief, by seat number; every crew member in the room knows who it is |
| Verify | Read the ingredient label yourself; check every sauce, dressing, garnish and stock |
| Never guess | If you cannot confirm an ingredient, do not serve it |
Cross-contamination at scale is the real risk: shared oil, shared tongs, a crumb from a bread board, a canape tray that carried something else. Traces count.
The records the interior owns
- Temperature logs, cleaning schedules and their sign-off, delivery and supplier records, allergen and preference sheets, waste and disposal records, and any incident reports.
- Cleaning is verified, not assumed: a schedule with a named owner, a frequency, a method, and a signature confirming it was done and checked.
Onboard Notes
- Escalate immediately if you suspect an allergen error or contamination: stop service of the item, retain the food, tell the chief stew and the captain. Speed matters more than your embarrassment.
- Know where the yacht's adrenaline auto-injectors are, and whether the guest carries their own. Ask the guest at embarkation.
- xplor is not an accredited food-safety training provider and this lesson is not a qualification: nothing here awards or counts toward any certificate. Formal food-safety training and certification are obtained separately.