Taking the hassle out of HACCP

A digital food safety system can save you time and money - while giving you precious peace of mind that your food and customers are safe.

Under the Australian and New Zealand Food Standards (3.2.1), food businesses should implement a food safety management plan based upon HACCP principles. This program should be periodically reviewed and audited.

As many food professionals would know, developing your food safety management plan is one thing - but implementing it is quite another. How can you ensure the right actions are taken by the right person, at the right time – easily and traceably? 

With so many critical points in the storage, handling, and serving of food, and so many checks to ensure standards are met and food is safe to eat, the burden of compliance can be overwhelming.

Tools for doing HACCP better – and smarter

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) is a systematic, proactive approach to food safety. It is a continuous process of controlling hazards at critical points to prevent an incident from occurring. It involves:

• looking closely at what you do in your business, what could go wrong, and what risks there are to food safety
• identifying your critical control points – areas your business needs to focus on to ensure risks are removed or reduced to safe levels
• deciding what preventative and corrective actions you need to take before and after something goes wrong
• making sure that your procedures are being followed and are working
• keeping records to show that appropriate actions are being taken to keep people safe.

HACCP compliance can seem onerous, but it doesn’t need to be. It all comes down to the tools or methods used to implement your food safety program. That’s where a digital food safety system can be truly transformative.

With a flexible suite of technological tools that cover both temperature control and hygiene practices, you can streamline and even automate many of your food safety and hygiene processes, significantly reducing the burden of compliance:

1. Automated temperature monitoring

The first step to streamlining your food safety processes is to eliminate manual temperature checks. You can achieve this by installing core product sensors in all your refrigeration equipment with customisable temperature ranges (e.g. for high-risk or sensitive products). 

Alarms and email/SMS alerts can be triggered 24/7 and corrective actions recorded to show how you managed any issue that arose (not to mention protecting you from costly stock losses).

2. Digitised food safety and hygiene tasks

The next step is to equip your teams with a purpose-built mobile device loaded with food safety software. This device prompts staff to complete and log tasks across their work area, according to a schedule set by you – from hand probing, cleaning and maintenance to stock rotation and shelf-life checks.

With customisable software that can be adapted to your operations, you can assign tasks to designated areas (e.g Front of House, Back of House) at designated times or intervals (e.g. hourly, daily, weekly or monthly). 

You can even schedule tasks to be completed within timeframes that tend to be quieter for your operations – to maximise staff resources. You can then set and escalate reminders to managers to verify that tasks have been completed and to the required standard.

 3. Real-time access to food safety data – anywhere, anytime

With a best-practice digital food safety system, you’re always in control because data is uploaded to the cloud in real-time to be accessed anywhere, anytime. 

For example, refrigeration sensors and wireless food probes capture live data so that you can take prompt action to correct any issues. This includes food temperatures during storage, at good inwards, preparation, prime cooking, chilling, reheating and serving.

All data is fully traceable by date, time, batch, user and location for full management oversight, auditing, compliance and accreditation purposes. This is particularly valuable if you manage multiple sites, giving you a 360-degree view of food safety performance across your entire business operations at any given time.

A renewed focus on food safety

As outlined above, instead of feeling like a burden or ‘just another thing’ you have to do, with the right tools food safety can become something you and your staff take pride in. 

With a more streamlined approach, your teams can move forward with a renewed sense of purpose around what matters most: protecting your customers and your business.

Sounds like this could work for you? This is exactly how a Monika digital food safety system has been designed. Contact Monika for a free demonstration on 1300 857 025 or via info@monika.com.au.

Article posted by Monika