Food Control Plan diary

The Digital Food Control Plan Diary for NZ Food Businesses

For years the daily rhythm of NZ kitchens lived in MPI's paper Food Control Plan Diary — fridge temperatures in the morning, deliveries as they landed, cleaning at close. That Diary was retired with the old template, but the habit it built is exactly what your Food Control Plan still needs. KitchenSorted is a digital diary with the same rhythm, free, on the phone already in your kitchen.

Start free See the verification pack

Free forever for the daily diary. No credit card. No hardware.

Is the MPI Food Control Plan Diary still valid in 2026?

No. The paper Food Control Plan Diary belonged to the old “Food Service and Food Retail” template (S39-00001), which was revoked — businesses had to move off it and onto Simply Safe & Suitable by 1 February 2024. The Diary PDF still floats around online, but it is no longer listed on MPI's forms and documents page, and MPI no longer supplies or promotes it. MPI's current official paper resource is the Simply Safe & Suitable record blanks, refreshed 27 February 2026.

This trips up new owners more often than you'd think. The Diary was laid out page-by-page around that revoked plan, while the current Simply Safe & Suitable template — version v39-00005, which all registered template businesses needed to be working under by 30 April 2026 — organises its checks and records differently. So if a previous owner hands you the old Diary along with the business, or you download the PDF from a stale link, the records you keep in it won't match the plan you're actually registered under — and your verifier will be checking against the current plan. See how KitchenSorted follows the Simply Safe & Suitable structure.

One reassurance: any records you already kept in the old Diary aren't wasted. Keep them — Food Control Plan records must be retained for at least 4 years after they're created (regs 36 and 81, Food Regulations 2015), and old pages remain valid evidence of the checks you did at the time.

What replaced the paper Diary?

Two things. On paper, MPI now supplies Simply Safe & Suitable record blanks — printable record sheets refreshed on 27 February 2026 and offered in PDF, Word and Excel so businesses can adapt them. And for keeping records digitally, MPI's Record keeping guidance (February 2026) suggests do-it-yourself methods — spreadsheets, Google Sheets and Docs, online forms, photos of a whiteboard. There is no official digital diary; MPI describes the methods and leaves the tooling to you.

To be clear: paper record-keeping is completely legal, and MPI actively supports it — the same guidance lists notebooks and ring binders as acceptable methods. The case against paper is friction, not legality. Nothing reminds you at 7am when the fridge check is due. An out-of-range temperature just sits on the page instead of prompting a corrective action. And when your verification visit comes around, you're hunting through months of pages to assemble what your verifier asks for — then storing 4 years of folders.

Want to stay on paper? Genuinely fine — start with our plain-English guide to the current MPI record blanks, which covers every file and which version is current.

The same daily rhythm, with the friction removed

KitchenSorted keeps the diary habit the old paper Diary built — the same checks, in the same order, every day — and covers every record a Food Control Plan needs.

Morning temperature checks

Fridge and chiller temps in a few taps — dated, timed and initialled the way regulation 37 requires of a record.

Goods-in as they land

Deliveries logged at the door — supplier, food, quantity, temperature at receipt — instead of scribbled on a docket for later.

Cleaning at close

Daily and deep cleans ticked off and dated. Recording cleaning is optional under MPI's guidance — but verifiers move faster when the evidence is there.

Reminders, not memory

The paper Diary never chased anyone. KitchenSorted nudges the right person when a check is due, so gaps get caught the same day — not at verification.

Corrective actions attached

An out-of-range temp flags a corrective action on the spot — what happened, the fix, the prevention — linked to the entry that triggered it.

One-click verification pack

No photocopying a year of diary pages: every record assembled into a dated PDF for the period your verifier asks for. How the verification pack works.

Food Control Plan diary FAQs

Writing in a book is legal — the problem is that this particular book was built around the revoked S39-00001 template, so its pages don't match the checks and records the current Simply Safe & Suitable plan expects, and MPI no longer supplies or promotes it. If you want paper, use the current MPI record blanks instead.

Yes. MPI's February 2026 record-keeping guidance explicitly lists notebooks, printed record templates in a ring binder and even whiteboard photos as acceptable methods, and MPI refreshed its printable record blanks in February 2026. Whatever the medium, records must be accurate, dated and identify who did the check (regs 37 and 82), and be kept for at least 4 years (regs 36 and 81, Food Regulations 2015).

Yes — KitchenSorted's daily diary is free forever: unlimited temperature, cleaning and receiving logs for one site and two users, with 30 days of visible history. As far as we can tell it's the only free-forever web-based Food Control Plan record-keeping product in NZ (last checked August 2026). Here's an honest look at when digital beats paper — and when it doesn't.

No. Compliance never requires any particular product — paper or exported copies satisfy the 4-year retention duty, which sits with you as the operator. What the paid plan (NZ$390/yr + GST) adds is convenience: reminders, one-click verification packs and 4 years of history in the app. Your free-plan records are never deleted — they unlock again whenever you upgrade.

Sources & review

Reviewed on 2 August 2026 by the KitchenSorted team. Regulatory pages are re-reviewed quarterly, and immediately when MPI announces template or policy changes. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

This page is general information, not legal or food-safety advice. Always confirm requirements with MPI, your registration authority, or your verifier.

Keep the Diary Habit Going

Start the free digital diary today — upgrade only when you want reminders, the verification pack and 4 years of history.

Start free See pricing →