How long to keep HACCP and cleaning records

HACCP records: the retention period under law and guideline

The EU hygiene regulation requires food businesses to "retain any other documents and records for an appropriate period" (Art. 5(4)(c) Regulation 852/2004). It names no figure. What appropriate means is explained by the European Commission in its 2022 notice: the period "should be sufficiently long to ensure that the information is still available in case of an alert that can be traced back to the food concerned", and long enough for official controls.

In Austria it becomes more concrete. The hygiene guideline for retail businesses published by the Ministry of Health also covers restaurants and canteens under the EU law definition, and gives periods for cold-storage records, deviations and training (overview below). A guideline is not a law but, in its own words, a model for putting the duties into practice. For Germany we have found no figure in law; there it stays with the appropriate period.

The periods at a glance

Each row says where the figure comes from. "Law" is binding; "Guideline" and "Recommendation" describe what authorities consider appropriate.

The same periods, sorted by document, are in the glossary entry on record retention periods.

Delivery notes: two periods for one piece of paper

A delivery note belongs to both worlds. For traceability you must be able to identify every person who supplied you with a food (Art. 18(2) Regulation 178/2002). In what form is free according to the WKO, whether inventory software or by hand. How long the law does not say; the European Commission suggests five years in its traceability guidance, the shelf life plus six months for goods with a best-before date, and six months for highly perishable goods supplied directly to the final consumer.

For tax, the countries differ. In Austria, business papers should be kept for seven years where they matter for tax assessment (§ 132(1) BAO). In Germany, the period for delivery notes received that are not an accounting voucher ends when the invoice is received (§ 147(3) AO); if the delivery note is itself an accounting voucher, eight years apply. If you dispose of a delivery note early, you need supplier, goods and date for traceability somewhere else, for example in goods receiving. All cases, including scans and phone photos, are in the guide Keeping delivery notes digitally.

When the period starts: an example

Tax periods do not start with the date on the receipt but with the end of the calendar year (§ 132(1) BAO, § 147(4) AO). An invoice dated 14 March 2026:

How digital records meet the period

For HACCP, the European Commission says it expressly: "Records can be kept electronically provided that they can be made available to the competent authorities on request for verifying the effective application of the rules". Tax documents have more precise conditions: in Austria, a "complete, orderly, identical and true-to-original reproduction" must be guaranteed at any time until the end of the statutory retention period (§ 132(2) BAO). In Germany, the data must be available at any time throughout the period, made readable without delay and be machine-evaluable (§ 147(2) AO).

Related