Digital HACCP Records
Transform your HACCP System from Paper to Electronic
Remember the old days when many people jokingly agreed that HACCP stood for Hard, Agonizing, Complicated, Confusing, Paperwork? Lucky for us in the 21st century, it doesn’t have to be that way. The days of file cabinets full of several years of paper HACCP records can be and should be long gone by now. If you are still operating that way, there is a better way to do things.
Developing and reassessing your own HACCP Plan takes a lot of work. You are proud of your HACCP system and your ability to produce safe food products. However, you may not be sure how to manage the extensive record keeping requirements. But you do know generating tons of paper and having to keep it for 2 years or more is not a good answer. You might think software systems to digitize records may be difficult or expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. Electronic HACCP records are the best way to maintain your HACCP system to reduce record keeping time requirements and errors while not having to deal with forests of paper. These systems are compliant with regulatory requirements and preferred by auditors for ease of information retrieval.
To get started building your digital program, you can engage your HACCP team or other key personnel from multiple departments that have industry knowledge of setting up systems and a solid background on good data collection and monitoring practices. Your HACCP Plan is detailed in its planning, workflow and responsibilities. Doing all these things to a ‘t’ ensures accurate monitoring and safe products. Deviations from critical limits identified for CCP’s can have major impacts on food safety, the end consumer and ultimately, your business if not properly identified and controlled.
So, having these digital practices in place can assure you will be always in control of your processes and aware of issues when they occur. In this post, we will explain how to digitally convert your HACCP records and explain management tools to make your food safety system a success.
How to Digitize HACCP Records:
You can start by integrating your existing system or building it on a scalable technology. Choosing the right software program for your HACCP record keeping system is an essential step for you to get insight about your system success later. Our priority here is configurability; maximizing the ability to customize solutions to production processes for essential data collection is a MUST.
First you need to digitize the documents you are using for data collection throughout your HACCP system including your CCP’s and related prerequisite programs. Some examples of HACCP documentation to digitize could be, but not limited to:
- Critical Control Points (CCP’s)
- Temperature Checks
- Product attributes such as pH, Water Activity, Salt etc
- Equipment Calibrations
- Sanitation inspections
- Other control points
Going from a paper to a digital HACCP system can be an easy transition with the right tools. When looking for a solution to go digital, make sure to include things like critical limit deviation alerts, review/verification processes, data collection responsibilities and routine monitoring of results to meet your plant’s regulatory and audit compliance requirements.
After documents are fully digitized, then the system can be implemented with assigning tasks and training relevant employees. Each role responsible for certain data collection should be assigned digital forms in the system and trained on how to complete the record keeping requirements. The digital record keeping system will notify responsible individuals when monitoring, verification or deviation checks must be completed to keep the system on track. As employees see exactly what they are responsible for, they can prioritize and complete tasks.
Alerts on deviations are crucial to correcting errors sooner rather than later so they do not get out of control. Alerts can be sent to primary and secondary recipients so immediate action can be taken. This is part of the continuous monitoring efforts in conjunction with the record review and sign-off process. The record review process can be as simple as signing off on multiple digital entries at once up to the current date or signing off on each individual entry as they come through with custom alerting tools.
The best way to continuously monitor and improve your HACCP system is through configurable KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). KPIs can be customized to your products and processes. In addition to food safety KPI’s related to your HACCP system, your electronic record keeping system can equally be used to monitor quality attributes to assure you meet specification requirements for additional benefits and process control.
Main Takeaways:
Converting your HACCP system from paper to digital is an important task. It will bring your food safety and quality systems into 21st century solutions for continuous improvement. Your HACCP system should include core competencies such as determining CCP’s and Control points, setting critical limits, establishing data collection/management systems, continuously monitoring data points, taking corrective action, and ensuring HACCP data verification.
Integrating all these key points into one solution is key to success. You will need available resources (time and people), investment (capital) and the ability to integrate your new electronic systems with your existing programs. BluWave Technologies has created a digital platform specifically for each of these unique plant needs through our solution called BluWave Forms. This allows companies to easily digitize their HACCP records and sustain it in a culture of continuous improvement. Not only is the system user-friendly for all levels of the organization, but it also keeps your operation compliant and your customers happy. In addition to BluWave Forms, we also have solutions for BluWave Reports and BluWave Dashboards. These integrated solutions are an effective way to implement process control and optimize your operations. Don’t hesitate to learn more about digital transformation and how it affects your programs with BluWave. We have the resources, plans and industry-leading implementation strategy for digitizing existing systems, optimizing results and driving continuous improvement with KPI management. Please visit our page for details on BluWave Forms or learn how to digitize your records with the link below!