Food safety in a bakery environment
Bakeries present a distinct food safety profile compared to other food service businesses. The primary biological hazard concerns are different — Bacillus cereus in rice and grain-based products, Staphylococcus aureus in cream-filled and custard products, and Salmonella from raw eggs used in batters and fillings. The primary chemical hazard concerns are allergens — particularly in a bakery environment where gluten, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, and sesame are all common ingredients.
AMES Food Advisory begins every bakery HACCP plan with a thorough review of your product range, ingredient list, and production process. We identify the specific hazards relevant to your bakery — not a generic list — and design control measures that are practical for your production environment.
A typical Sydney artisan bakery may use gluten, dairy, eggs, tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios), sesame (seeds, tahini, sesame oil), peanuts, and soy across its product range. The 2021 FSANZ amendments added sesame as a mandatory major allergen — critical for bakeries using sesame-topped loaves, tahini in fillings, or sesame oil in recipes.
Cooling of baked goods — a critical control point
Cream-filled pastries, custard tarts, and other bakery products containing potentially hazardous fillings must be cooled rapidly after baking. The cooling CCP is one of the most commonly failed in bakery HACCP plans — products left to cool at ambient temperature for extended periods, or placed in the coolroom while still hot (which raises coolroom temperatures and slows cooling of other products).
AMES designs cooling procedures based on validated food science — specifying the maximum cooling time from 60°C to 21°C (within 2 hours) and from 21°C to 5°C (within a further 4 hours), and the monitoring procedures to verify cooling is achieved within these limits.
Gluten-free production in a gluten-containing bakery
Many Sydney bakeries now offer gluten-free products. Producing gluten-free items in a bakery that also handles wheat flour presents significant cross-contact risks — airborne flour, shared equipment, and shared surfaces can all introduce gluten into nominally gluten-free products.
View our fixed-price packages or book a scoping call to discuss your bakery's requirements.