The establishment employee is not performing thermometer calibration as written in the HACCP plan. What type of noncompliance is this?

• A. Monitoring
• B. Verification
• C. Recordkeeping
• D. Corrective Actions

Answer: (B)

Calibration of thermometers is a verification activity. It checks that the instruments used for monitoring CCPs are measuring accurately, so the monitoring data you rely on truly reflect actual conditions. If thermometer calibration isn’t performed as written in the HACCP plan, you can’t trust the monitoring results, which is a verification deficiency.

Keeping records of calibration is a recordkeeping issue, but the root problem here is the failure to perform the calibration itself, not just to document it. Monitoring would involve the act of watching and recording temperatures during processing, not the instrument calibration. Corrective actions occur after a deviation is detected, not simply from failing to calibrate in advance.