Sushi rice, curing, smoking and fermenting: when a restaurant needs a variance, what to send, and a pH log

House-cured bacon on the brunch menu. Sushi rice that sits on the counter all night. Pickles made in a bucket, smoked trout, a jar of something fermenting on the shelf. These are the dishes that make a menu yours, and several of them are what the Food Code calls specialized processing methods: you need your health department's written permission before you start, usually with a HACCP plan behind it.

This post covers which processes need a variance, what doesn't, what goes in the request, how Florida handles it, and a pH log for acidified sushi rice.

General information, not legal advice. Your state or local health department enforces its own edition of the Food Code, decides what needs a variance, and can ask for more than is listed here. Section numbers and quotes are from the FDA Food Code 2026 unless a Florida source is named.

The processes that need a variance

The Food Code says an establishment "shall obtain a VARIANCE from the REGULATORY AUTHORITY" before any of these (§3-502.11):

A variance also needs a HACCP plan: one is required when "A VARIANCE is required as specified under Subparagraph 3-401.11(D)(4), § 3-502.11, or ¶ 4-204.110(B)" (§8-201.13(A)(2)).

What usually isn't a special process

• Smoke for flavor. Brisket smoked and then cooked, cooled and held like any other cooked meat is smoked for flavor; (A) is about smoking as preservation.
• Sushi rice under time control. DBPR's page says that "When sushi rice is held at room temperature under a proper Time as a Public Health Control procedure for no more than 4 hours, after which it is discarded, it is not a Special Process, and neither a Process Waiver nor a HACCP plan are required" (DBPR: Special Process). Our time as a public health control guide has the written procedure.
• Pickles you keep cold. Vinegar for flavor on a TCS food held at 41°F or below and dated is ordinary cold holding. It's the moment you use the acid to preserve it or to take it off temperature control that it becomes (C). Ask if you're not sure.

Why acid makes it non-TCS, and why that needs proof

The Food Code's definition of time/temperature control for safety food has two tables. For food that isn't heat-treated, or is heat-treated but not packaged (cooked sushi rice in a hotel pan), Table B lists any food with a pH below 4.2 as Non-TCS FOOD, whatever its water activity (§1-201.10(B), "Time/temperature control for safety food", Table B). Get the rice below 4.2 every batch, and it doesn't need time or temperature control. Miss it on one batch, and you have cooked rice on a counter all night.

That's why the plan is about measuring: a calibrated pH meter, a test on every batch, and a record.

Florida: special process, process waiver

DBPR's Division of Hotels and Restaurants calls these special processes. Its page says "Written approval from DBPR is required BEFORE such operations can be carried out" and that "A Special Process may require an approved HACCP plan, a Process Waiver, or both." Its table lists smoking for preservation, curing ("like corned beef, bacon, ham, etc"), acidifying "as with sushi rice", shellfish tanks, custom processing and sprouting as needing both, and gives "fermentation of TCS foods or dehydration of foods, such as beef jerky" as examples of another method that requires a waiver (DBPR: Special Process).

DBPR's forms include a Special Process Waiver Request, a filled-in sushi rice waiver request that cites §3-502.11(C)(2), and a sushi rice HACCP template. Plans and requests go to the special process email address on that page. The request form says the waiver "must be approved before the establishment starts to conduct the process", that "the process waiver must be maintained at the establishment", and that "Process waivers are not transferable". DBPR's templates are written to the 2017 Food Code, which they cite.

The special process inventory

Before you write anything, list what your kitchen does. One line per process.

Special process inventory · [café or restaurant name] · [date]

The variance request

The Food Code lists what the request contains (§8-103.11). DBPR's waiver form follows the same three parts.

Variance request · [café or restaurant name]

Permit holder: [legal name] · License or permit no.: [number] · Address: [address] · Contact: [name, phone, email] · Other locations covered: [list]

1. The process (§8-103.11(A)): [describe the process in plain steps: for example, cooked short-grain rice mixed with a vinegar mixture to a pH below 4.2, then held at room temperature at the sushi station for up to [hours] and discarded]

2. The Code sections you're asking to vary (§8-103.11(A)): [for example §3-501.16 hot and cold holding, §3-501.19 time as a public health control, and §3-502.11(C)(2)]

3. How the hazard is controlled instead (§8-103.11(B)): [the critical limit and why it works, e.g. pH below 4.2, Table B of the TCS definition; any process authority review or lab results you have]

4. HACCP plan attached (§8-103.11(C), §8-201.14): ☐ Yes · products, recipes, equipment, flow diagram, critical control points, monitoring, corrective actions, verification, records, training

Signed: ………………………… Title: ………………… Date: ……………

After it's approved

§8-103.12 asks you to keep the approved variance at the establishment, follow the HACCP plan and procedures it was approved on, and keep records that show you monitor the critical control points, verify the process and take corrective action, available on request. In practice:

• [ ] Approval letter in the binder (and a copy in the office)
• [ ] Only trained staff run the process; training records kept
• [ ] Every batch logged; logs reviewed and signed by the person in charge
• [ ] Equipment calibrated on schedule (the pH meter, the thermometer)
• [ ] Plan reviewed when the recipe, supplier or equipment changes, and at least once a year

The sushi rice pH log

DBPR's sushi rice template sets the critical limit as "The rice must be acidified using vinegar mixture to a pH of less than 4.2", and its example monitoring step is a slurry: a quarter cup of rice from several places in the batch, distilled water ("tap water is not suitable"), massaged in a sealed bag for a minute, then the calibrated probe. Its corrective action is to add vinegar and test again, and "If the pH cannot be lowered below 4.2 or if pH cannot be measured", discard the rice or handle it as un-acidified rice under time control. The log below follows that shape; use the steps in your own approved plan.

pH meter calibration log · Meter: [make, model, ID]

Sushi rice acidification log · [location]

Weekly review by person in charge: ………………………… Date: ……………

Mistakes we see

Where Mays fits

• The pH log as a form. Under Tasks → Types, build a Sushi rice pH form with a Number field for the reading (a Min of 0 and Max of 14 stop typos from being submitted; a form won't submit with a value outside them), a Date / time field (Time only), a Yes / No for Retested after adding vinegar, and a Text field for corrective action, and add it to the sushi station's daily checklist as a Custom form task. A second form, pH meter calibration, holds the two buffer readings. Every submission is in Tasks → Data, ready to export for your inspector. See Building custom forms and Task Data.
• An alert on a high reading. Under Insights → Alerts & Reports, a Task Form Field Threshold alert on the pH field, At or above 4.2, notifies the people you pick every time a batch is logged at or over the limit. See Alerts and scheduled reports.
• One batch, one task. If you make rice several times a day, add one task per batch to the template (Rice batch 1 pH, Rice batch 2 pH); there's no setting that repeats a task during the day. See Creating a checklist template.
• The plan where the station can read it. Keep the approved variance, the HACCP plan and the step-by-step SOP in a Knowledge Base folder for the kitchen, and on Pro, a Learning module with a quiz for everyone allowed to make the rice. See Your knowledge base and Creating learning modules.

What Mays doesn't do: it doesn't connect to pH meters, so readings are typed in, and it doesn't track variance approvals or remind you when a plan is due for review.

Ask first, then cure, smoke or acidify

List what your kitchen does, mark the ones in §3-502.11, and talk to your health department before the first batch. For each one, a written plan, a critical limit you can measure, a log on every batch, and someone who checks the log every week.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll build your pH log with you.