MPI refreshed the Simply Safe & Suitable record blanks — what changed in February 2026
2 August 2026
On 27 February 2026, MPI released refreshed record blanks for the Simply Safe & Suitable template Food Control Plan — MPI's official record templates for template FCP businesses — plus a brand-new record keeping guidance document. The recording rules themselves didn't change. Here's what did.
What changed on 27 February 2026?
Three things. The record blanks are now published in Word and Excel as well as PDF; five new record templates were added; and MPI shipped a new roughly 40-page Record keeping guidance PDF alongside them. MPI's framing is that the refresh makes the blanks easier to use — the "recording requirements have not changed".
The full set now lives on MPI's Forms and documents for Food Act plans and programmes page in three formats:
The editable Word and Excel versions were added so businesses can adapt the blanks to fit their own needs. The refresh also added new templates: opening and closing checks, "internal audit/verification" (MPI's name for your own internal checks), thermometer checks/calibration, daily cleaning tasks, and biltong records.
A new template doesn't mean a new duty. MPI's own Record keeping guidance lists opening and closing checks, daily cleaning results and thermometer calibration results as optional records — the mandatory set (fridge temperatures, supplier deliveries, training, sickness, maintenance, corrective actions) is unchanged.
The new Record keeping guidance
Alongside the blanks, MPI published Record keeping guidance (February 2026, Version 1) — around 40 pages showing how to fill in each template, which records are mandatory versus optional, and a list of acceptable ways to keep records. That list explicitly includes digital methods: spreadsheets, Google Sheets and Docs, online forms, and online storage you can reach from your phone.
We've unpacked what that digital-methods list means in practice: Can I keep my food safety records digitally in NZ?
What this means for your business
Check you're using the current blanks
If your printed pack predates 27 February 2026, download the current set. Our record blanks hub links every current file and explains what each one covers.
Adapting in Word or Excel? Keep the required fields
Whatever layout you land on, each record still has to be accurate, legible, dated, describe the result and identify who did it — and be kept for at least 4 years (regulations 36–37, Food Regulations 2015). Strip those fields out of a template and the record stops doing its job.
Prefer not to maintain documents at all?
KitchenSorted's record-keeping diary for Simply Safe & Suitable plans keeps the same records digitally — every entry dated, timed and initialled, no ring binder to reprint when MPI refreshes the templates.