How software helps with HACCP

The goal of HACCP is to produce safe food in a systematic way. HACCP achieves food safety by managing many details and confirming that those details are done consistently.

There are 7 principles of HACCP:

1. Conduct a Hazard Analysis
2. Identify Critical Control Points
3. Establish Critical Limits for Each Critical Control Point
4. Establish Monitoring Procedures
5. Establish Corrective Actions
6. Establish Recordkeeping Procedures
7. Establish Verification Procedures

Accomplishing these principles involves being sure that you have a safe environment for preparing food. The HACCP process has you design a plan to assure that you are targeting the hazards that can ride on your food product. It involves training your staff and making sure that they understand the fundamentals of food safety. It also requires you to design adequate record keeping systems and a system to insure that you are doing what you planned. HACCP is all about managing those details, on a daily basis.

What tool helps to manage details? Software and personal computers are the most common tools used today for managing complex sets of related details. PCs can assist in making sure that all of the details of food safety are done and that the details are organized and consistent. Software for food safety targets the unique needs of food processors and food preparers.

Norback, Ley & Associates LLC offers an extensive family of food safety software tools including stepHACCP™, doHACCP™ , recordHACCP™, doSOP™, the learnHACCP™ CD ROM, the Food Industry HACCP Help Files and auditHACCP™. NLA designs software for creating safer products. Our software tools assist users in creating a systematic food safety environment by managing the many details of a HACCP system and its prerequisites. This tool set was created for food processors, educational institutions, consultants and food handlers to ease HACCP education, plan creation implementation and plan maintenance.

stepHACCP was designed for retail and food service professionals.  It assists restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and anyone who serves “fork ready food” with creating a safer product.  This software assists with building food safety plans in six easy steps.  Each step provides a simple checklist that tells the user what they should do at that step.  The checklist also teaches them about the subject and leads them through that function.  stepHACCP includes references for hazards, critical limits and standard operating procedures.  It includes the FDA Food Code 1999 and other government documents to make researching hazards and prevention procedures easy. stepHACCP provides prints of the food safety plan, so it can easily be communicated to inspectors, managers and employees.

The core product of the family for food processors, doHACCP software, is designed to assist in the development of a complete HACCP system based on emerging world HACCP standards and the NACMCF97 standards (NACMCF97-National Advisory Committee for Microbiological Criteria in Foods, 1997). This software enables the formation of a HACCP system around any food production or distribution system by providing an easy to use "drag & drop" method of building the flow of materials.

Developing a HACCP plan with doHACCP does not require changing your food production system to fit someone else’s notion of how it should be done. The flow of materials diagram built in doHACCP organizes all of the HACCP information and reflects exactly how your production is done. There is no generic manufacturing or production or processing scheme which must be retro-fitted to what is actually going on in your operation. Each diagram is built to fit your unique situation.

Another important advantage of using doHACCP is that the HACCP protocols are built into the software. This means that the user has constant guides and reminders about the tasks remaining as doHACCP walks them through the HACCP planning sequence. The software keeps HACCP planners on track and does not allow important HACCP planning tasks to be omitted. It keeps all the planning data organized around HACCP protocols and linked to the actual manufacturing system.

These easy to update, easy to maintain HACCP plans may also be printed. So a consistently formatted document is available for every product under HACCP. Thus, keeping track of HACCP plans for many (even hundreds of) products becomes the computer’s problem, not yours.

doHACCP enables the user to "do HACCP" planning. It is intended to assist in the development of useful, effective HACCP systems in any food manufacturing, production or distribution environment. This PC software lets computers do what they are best at, manage the details of food safety and make you more productive.

Software for creating safer products

nla@norbackley.com