16 replies to this topic

[GoodDay]

Hi, 

 

Looking for some guidance on the cost of HACCP Plan Development by consultants. I have been in the food industry over 15 years in various quality system management roles including SQF standard management. The roles included management for big and small food manufacturer so I was blessed to be exposed to the best industry standards applications as well as budget restricted standard applications. I am being presented with the opportunity to develop HACCP plans for small bakery and I hope you can help me by sharing your experience. 

 

Few questions to start the discussion: 

1. What is the current pricing consultants charge for developing HACCP Plan? 

2. Do you set your pricing per hour or per project?

3. What services do you include for HACCP Plan Development? When you provide a quote for HACCP Plan do you include pre requisite/GMP programs in your pricing or do you quote that separately? Do you include HACCP plan verification/validation and implantation of pre requite and HACCP plan?

 

Thank you, 

Edited by GoodDay, 07 February 2025 - 09:40 PM.

[SQFconsultant]

Business associate of mine charges $10-15,000 to develop a HACCP plan. He charges by the project like we do.

 

Personally we don't develop HACCP plans, but we refer this out to others.

[GoodDay]

Thank you Glenn, 

 

I have been reading your comments for years now. I also learned a lot from you. I really appreciate how willing you are to share your knowledge and experience, 

 

Do you happen to know what is included in that pricing your associates charge?

Edited by GoodDay, 07 February 2025 - 10:08 PM.

[GMO]

Ooh I've not done this kind of consulting yet but I'd be wary of it.  HACCP is a beast and doing a good plan is a lot of effort.  You'd also need cast iron guarantees you're going to get access to the staff to get out of them their understanding of the plant and process.  It's also something you'd want to do around other work because of plant staff availability (or part time if you prefer).

 

From scratch, I think I agree with Glenn and I would put it at the top end of that range, i.e. £12,000 and that would only be to bring together their prerequisite programmes and not develop them from scratch (you could set yourself up for a year's work if that's included).  I'd also recommend that you are advising what is needed for validation not verification not doing whatever testing needs to be done.  Again the latter could be very costly.

 

I would be incredibly clear in the quote about what the scope is for this.  The time in meeting, touring, talking to the team, writing up etc will be significant.

 

Reviewing and updating an existing plan I'd probably look at half that.

But it all depends on how complex the process is and the maturity of the site.  

[Tony-C]

Hi GoodDay,

 

How long is a piece of string? The amount would depend on the size and complexity of the operation and the number of products.

 

We (IFSQN) offer Pay-As-You-Go e-Consultancy (5 Hours)

 

I wouldn’t imagine delivering all singing and dancing HACCP plans would take more than 50 hours so $7,475 for most customers but $8,970 for those customers in the EU/UK.

 

For a small operations it could be a lot less which is why we generally ask customers to request a quote so that we can provide a full description of what they will get for their bucks.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[SQFconsultant]

Good day wrote in part...

"Do you happen to know what is included in that pricing your associates charge?"

 

Actually, no I don't  it's like apples abd oranges as to how minimal or how complex it is on a case by case basis.

 

For instance I pretty much know what abd SQF development is going to be - but then to arrive at a final cost there are all sorts of variables such as are we working remotely or on site, size of company, limited or extensive side consulting, training, etc plus how much or how little hand holding there will be.

 

The gentleman that we refer work to actuaactually loves doing haacp plans where as I love what we do but hate (with a passion) doing haccp plan grids. Witkups etc.. we review them, but that's it. 

[SQFconsultant]

Time to replace my new speel check software.

[GMO]

Hi GoodDay,

 

How long is a piece of string? The amount would depend on the size and complexity of the operation and the number of products.

 

We (IFSQN) offer Pay-As-You-Go e-Consultancy (5 Hours)

 

I wouldn’t imagine delivering all singing and dancing HACCP plans would take more than 50 hours so $7,475 for most customers but $8,970 for those customers in the EU/UK.

 

For a small operations it could be a lot less which is why we generally ask customers to request a quote so that we can provide a full description of what they will get for their bucks.

 

 

Wow... Even in the simplest plants I've worked in I can't imagine it being so low as 50 hours.  I could spend that long on the write up alone.  Let alone visiting the plant, meeting with the staff etc.  I would estimate at least 4 times that to do a good job.  Or are you assuming it's writing up and the prep work is already done?

[GoodDay]

Thank you all for the feedback. 

 

GMO and Glenn, thank you for providing some good advices.

 

Tony, thank you for sharing your pricing method. That was very helpful. Just to confirm I follow you, you would think no more then 50 hours to write and help them implement it. Does that include GMP/pre requisite programs as well? 

 

The bakery is small, with total 4 employees. Equipment is storage shelving, prep tables, scales, tools, mixer, dough portioning and shaping machine, 2 ovens with racking, 3 dual use small walk in freezers/refrigerator ( can serve as both). I hope the process is similar enough for pretzels, bread, and bread rolls to fit them into one plan. They are shipped frozen or shelf stable. 

 

Based on answers it looks like it is more likely to price per project. My concern would be to underestimate the time needed due to lack of experience working in this set up and people not committing ((seen plenty of that in more structured and resource richer environment). How do you deal with people not committing. 

 

In terms of hourly pricing, what do you see being charged? Are small business open to pay prices of $150 per hour?

 

Thank you.

[SQFconsultant]

Op - in reply to...

 

"In terms of hourly pricing, what do you see being charged? Are small business open to pay prices of $150 per hour?"

 

150 to $400 is reasonable for a consultant to charge regardless of size of company per hour.

 

It really comes down to what the value is for the charge.

 

If we work 1 day for $2000 that means we charge $250 per hour and that is what we have charged and received for our last couple of small business clients, those hours however resulted in at least 25 times more in business for each one.

 

I actually find IFSQN charges to be very reasonable.

[Tony-C]

Thank you all for the feedback. 

 

GMO and Glenn, thank you for providing some good advices.

 

Tony, thank you for sharing your pricing method. That was very helpful. Just to confirm I follow you, you would think no more then 50 hours to write and help them implement it. Does that include GMP/pre requisite programs as well? 

 

The bakery is small, with total 4 employees. Equipment is storage shelving, prep tables, scales, tools, mixer, dough portioning and shaping machine, 2 ovens with racking, 3 dual use small walk in freezers/refrigerator ( can serve as both). I hope the process is similar enough for pretzels, bread, and bread rolls to fit them into one plan. They are shipped frozen or shelf stable. 

 

Based on answers it looks like it is more likely to price per project. My concern would be to underestimate the time needed due to lack of experience working in this set up and people not committing ((seen plenty of that in more structured and resource richer environment). How do you deal with people not committing. 

 

In terms of hourly pricing, what do you see being charged? Are small business open to pay prices of $150 per hour?

 

Thank you.

 

Thank you for the information GoodDay.

 

GMP/Prerequisite programs and Food Safety Management System Procedures would be included in the cost of producing the HACCP plan/plans. We would probably add some free training as well as this helps site personnel get up to speed. Based on the information you have given we would commit to completing within 50 hours cost without coming back for more money. To keep everyone committed and on board we would have weekly online meetings.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[GMO]

Thank you for the information GoodDay.

 

GMP/Prerequisite programs and Food Safety Management System Procedures would be included in the cost of producing the HACCP plan/plans. We would probably add some free training as well as this helps site personnel get up to speed. Based on the information you have given we would commit to completing within 50 hours cost without coming back for more money. To keep everyone committed and on board we would have weekly online meetings.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

 

Wowzers Tony that is fast to do all of that.

[GoodDay]

Tony, 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. It seems you have a system in place. That is impressive if I follow what you get accomplished in 50 hours. 

 

If I may ask few for. :)

 

Sorry for asking but want to make sure I fully understand. Do you mean you write all the programs in that time frame? Or do you mean you also help them implement all those programs in the 50 hours?

 

What programs do you include in the Food Safety Management System?

 

What do you offer in the free training? 

 

Thank you. 

[GoodDay]

Glenn, 

 

Good to hear that professional services are valued. 

 

Thank you one more time to being willing to share your experience. 

[Tony-C]

Wowzers Tony that is fast to do all of that.

Hi GMO,

 

Apologies, I missed your previous post, I’ve been away for a couple of days.

 

As explained in part here: Where to begin Implementing SQF? For the past 15 plus years been working with IFSQN helping our customers achieve food safety certification. During that period, we have helped around 1,500 food operations worldwide achieve certification to a food safety standard. Given the variety of customers we have worked with over that period we will have experience of the documentation required for each type of operation and this significantly reduces the amount of time a project would take.

 

Besides that, I wouldn’t get too hung up on the number of hours, as explained in the topic linked above we are able to be fairly generous with e-consultancy hours because we are working remotely from the site and don’t have the travel time to add to the expenses that an on-site consultant would charge.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

Tony, 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. It seems you have a system in place. That is impressive if I follow what you get accomplished in 50 hours. 

 

If I may ask few for. :)

 

Sorry for asking but want to make sure I fully understand. Do you mean you write all the programs in that time frame? Or do you mean you also help them implement all those programs in the 50 hours?

 

What programs do you include in the Food Safety Management System?

 

What do you offer in the free training? 

 

Thank you. 

Hi GoodDay,

 

We would include tailored Food Safety Management System and Good Manufacturing Practices documents generally required by GFSI/GFSI Benchmarked Standards together with the HACCP Plans that we develop as these form important foundations for food safety so that the Food Safety (HACCP) Plans are focussed on significant food safety hazards that require control.

 

This would mean that when the project is completed the system that they have in place would enable the customer to progress to certification should they wish.

 

Here is an illustration of the tailored Food Safety Management System and Good Manufacturing Practices documents and the document format that we can provide as part of a project:

 

 IFSQN Documents & Format.pdf   2.01MB   11 downloads

 

For the free training, I had the Practical HACCP Training for Food Safety Teams and Practical Internal Auditor Training for Food Operations in mind. The Internal Auditor training also includes some document/record control elements that I would think are important.

 

We would do the donkey work on the project and provide the documentation which would need to be implemented by the site with our online support. We can also take existing documents and records that the site uses and convert them into the agreed ‘company document format’. We would need a nominated person to drive this on-site who would also provide us with key information to ensure that the documents and HACCP plans are accurate. Plus, as I said before, to keep everyone committed and on board we would have weekly online meetings.

 

When a customer wants to progress to order we would agree what would be delivered including the specific HACCP plans required. Customers can use the contact form here to request that we proceed to a detailed quotation.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[GMO]

I have to say Tony, there's part of me that would think it's a risk doing all of that for a site as they may not feel it's "owned" but let's face it, for all that work, it's an absolute bargain.  If I was advising a site starting from scratch it would be a great way to get a lot of the leg work done prior to approval which the plant can then own and adapt going forward.

[kingstudruler1]

Im not sure there is a one size answer.  

 

 

1. What is the current pricing consultants charge for developing HACCP Plan? 

It would depend on process number, number of ingredients, etc.   Repacking salt might be very easy and inexpensive.  More complicated woud obviously be more expensive.  

 

 

2. Do you set your pricing per hour or per project?

I will almost never chage by hour.   There are consultants out there milking clients with no results or results that are not immediatley known to client.   It give us all a bad name.   

 

 

3. What services do you include for HACCP Plan Development? When you provide a quote for HACCP Plan do you include pre requisite/GMP programs in your pricing or do you quote that separately? Do you include HACCP plan verification/validation and implantation of pre requite and HACCP plan?

 

I would do those seperate and charge separate.   It could be included.   I guess preference on the client.   

If they dont have any prerequisites, honestly, they are pretty close to needing and entire food safety program developed anyway.    

 

Validation.   If is "white paper" based I would include it.   If it requres something like a time / temp validation study I would facilitate this with the "people" of thier choosing and not charge.