Validation and verification explained: your questions answered
Validation vs verification, validating CCPs and cleaning, retrospective validation and when to re-validate, answered by STC trainers.
Validation and verification come up on almost every HACCP and BRCGS course we run. These are the questions our community asked most, with answers from our trainers and lead auditors.
Q: What is the difference between validation and verification?
Validation proves that a control or process will work. It looks forward: before something new is introduced, you gather evidence that, for example, your cleaning process is capable of removing contamination, or your cook step will kill the target pathogen.
Verification confirms that it is working, and has been working. That covers today's monitoring and checks, and looking back at past evidence such as internal audits and records.
A simple way to remember it: validation is about proving effectiveness; verification is about confirming the system is being followed and still works. In BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 both sit in section 2.12 (HACCP principle 6).
▶ Watch: Validation and verification (STC & QTC Explains)
Q: How do I validate a CCP?
Validation is about proving the CCP actually controls the hazard:
- Gather solid evidence to support your critical limits, such as research, regulatory guidance or supplier data (for example cooking time and temperature, or pH).
- Test it under real working conditions. If the CCP is cooking, confirm the time and temperature achieves the kill you need for the target pathogen.
- Make sure monitoring equipment (thermometers, pH meters, metal detectors) is calibrated. Unreliable equipment gives unreliable results.
- Use laboratory testing to confirm control where appropriate and, for extra assurance, a challenge test carried out in a controlled way.
- Document everything, and repeat validation when equipment, processes or ingredients change.
Validation must be complete before product is made and sold. Leaving it late risks recalls, safety failures and non-conformities. Our BRCGS Validation & Verification course covers planning and recording a validation study.
▶ Watch: Validation and BRCGS Food clause 2.12.1 (STC & QTC Explains)
Q: How do I tell a real CCP from something better managed as a PRP?
Ask "what actually controls the hazard here?" If removing or weakening the step would immediately put food safety at risk, and it needs tight limits, constant monitoring and immediate corrective action, it is probably a CCP. If the hazard is already controlled by good hygiene, supplier approval, cleaning, segregation or maintenance, it usually sits better as a PRP.
A useful test: would calling this a CCP improve control, or just add paperwork? If it only creates forms, it probably isn't a CCP. Issue 9 sets out prerequisite programmes in clause 2.2.
Q: Where do most sites trip up?
Usually not by mixing up the words. Sites often have good verification (daily checks) but nothing on file for the original validation, because the equipment was installed years ago and nobody documented it.
We recommend a "validation audit" of critical equipment and processes when you take over a site or change a process: what evidence do we actually have that this metal detector or cook step does what we say? Sometimes manufacturer data is enough; sometimes it isn't. Validating an existing process is called retrospective validation, and you can use your years of verification data to show capability.
Q: How often should I re-validate?
The trigger is change: a deliberate change to a process, equipment or ingredient, or "drift" in key parameters over time. That is why trending your monitoring data is so valuable.
Q: How can a small business keep validation up to date?
Review your food safety plan whenever processes or regulations change, keep up routine checks and internal audits, train staff regularly, keep good records, and ask for expert advice when unsure.
More short videos on our STC & QTC Explains channel: https://youtube.com/@stcandqtc
Reviewed by Chisala Ngandwe, Technical Manager & Trainer, STC · November 2026
These Q&As share general best practice from our trainers and auditors. They aren't consultancy advice for your site. For support specific to your site and systems, we can refer you to our sister company QTC.
Learn more: our BRCGS Validation & Verification course covers this in depth, and our HACCP & Food Safety Level 4 course covers CCP validation. See all dates on the course calendar. Need hands-on help? QTC consultancy can support your validation studies.