Food safety is crucial for businesses involved in producing, transporting, storing, and selling food products.
It has become a pressing issue, with news of food poisoning making headlines and horror stories spreading like wildfire on social media.
Adhering to a HACCP Food Safety Program is not only a legal obligation but also crucial in safeguarding your business from any potential liability in case of food-borne illness outbreaks or severe allergic reactions due to food allergens.
In case you’re new to the concept of HACCP system(s), the term: HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, which is a food safety and risk assessment plan that was first developed in the 1960s by NASA and a group of food safety experts.
The goal was to address two major challenges faced by NASA's crewed space missions: crumbs and disease-causing microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, or toxins.
Today, HACCP principles are the foundation of Food Safety Programs that are acknowledged globally. These principles can be applied to every stage of the food supply chain, including production, preparation, packaging, and distribution, and are utilized to manage food safety across different types of food businesses.
5 Best HACCP Software for Businesses In 2024
We have highlighted the best digital HACCP system(s) below for you to understand how each of these platforms work against industries' use-cases.
Furthermore, we'll discuss some of the important aspects of online HACCP digital programs to help you with the overall concept.
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1. Xenia - Overall No. 1 Best & Free Digital HACCP Software
Xenia is a versatile platform that offers a suite of advantages to businesses across various industries for efficiently managing HACCP Critical Control Point inspections, and end to end operational efficiency.
It goes beyond conventional inspection management and provides a customizable, and collaborative approach to enhance food safety protocols.
The platform allows customization of HACCP inspection checklists, ensuring that businesses can align their processes with specific operational nuances and compliance requirements.
Xenia's work order feature plays a key role in assigning and tracking tasks and ensuring the timely completion of critical control point assessments. It is also useful for following rules and regulations, especially when it comes to checking commercial food facilities and private facilities.
The mobile-first solution acts like a central hub, keeping all inspection records and creating reports. This makes it easy to manage documents and keep track of things, not just to meet the rules but also to quickly handle and solve any problems that are found.
Furthermore, this digital Haccp system provides the framework for monitoring the total food system, from harvesting to consumption, to reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses.
Some of the key highlights of this software are appended below.
Key Features:
- Customization: Xenia's flexibility allows businesses to tailor HACCP inspection checklists to specific operational and compliance requirements.
- Task Management: The platform's task management features enable efficient assignment and tracking of inspection tasks, ensuring accountability and timely completion.
- Documentation and Reporting: It offers a centralized platform for storing inspection records and generating reports, simplifying documentation management and enhancing traceability.
- Collaboration and Communication: Its collaborative features facilitate seamless communication between team members, ensuring coordination and swift resolution of identified issues.
- Analytics and Insights: The software provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities, offering valuable insights into inspection data to identify trends, areas for improvement, and optimization opportunities.
- Ready-Made Checklists and Templates: It eases the implementation of HACCP standards through pre-built checklists and templates, streamlining the setup of inspections for various industries.
Pricing:
- Free Plan: Free forever includes tasks & work orders, template builder, public template library, internal chats, parent assets, and locations.
- Starter Plan: Starting at $99/month for the first 15 users, includes a work calendar view, work reports, template reports, sub-assets, and sub-locations.
- Premium Plan: Starting at $199/month for the first 15 users, includes reporting dashboards, time and cost tracking, template branding, public form submissions, automated templates, and more.
- Custom Plan: You get unlimited users, a dedicated account manager, and much more.
For pricing and a free product walkthrough on HACCP implementation, feel free to Book a Demo.
Available for up to 5 users
Premium for $99/month for the first 20 users (with free trial period)
Available on iOS, Android and Web
2. Safefood 360
Safefood 360° is an online food safety management software where users can create personalized HACCP plans and oversee various aspects such as suppliers, pest control, employee training, monitoring, and more.
The software automatically updates itself whenever there are changes in the food industry, eliminating the need for users to manually update existing processes. It actively tracks all alterations to food safety standards and regulations.
Key Features:
- Customizable HACCP Plans: Tailor your own HACCP plans to suit your business needs.
- Comprehensive Food Safety Management: Manage suppliers, pest control, employee training, monitoring, and other aspects crucial to food safety.
- Accessible Reports: Easily access and generate reports to keep track of your food safety measures.
- Stay Up-to-Date with Industry Standards: Safefood 360° keeps you informed about changes in the food industry standards, automatically updating the software.
- Learning Modules: Access learning modules specifically designed for the food industry.
- User Support: Receive support tailored for Safefood 360° users, ensuring a smooth experience with the software.
Pricing:
- Pricing is not available, you can contact them and ask for a quote.
3. Primority
Primority is a trusted food safety management tool used by businesses in food manufacturing, hospitality, and agriculture. Some users have relied on the software for over a decade.
With its established track record, Primority aids businesses in maintaining compliance with food safety standards. It achieves this through its HACCP management system, overseeing various aspects like monitoring operations, managing suppliers, corrective actions, cleaning processes, and more.
Key Features:
- Cloud-Based System: Access the food safety management system from anywhere using the web.
- Raw Material Control: Keep track and manage control over raw materials used in the production process.
- Supplier Management: Effectively manage and oversee relationships with suppliers to ensure quality and safety.
- Workflow Management: Streamline and organize processes efficiently for better control and coordination.
- Customizable Product Specifications: Tailor product specifications to meet specific business needs.
- Scheduling: Simplify scheduling tasks for activities like cleaning, ensuring smooth and organized operations.
Pricing:
- Primority pricing starts at $250.00 /month. You can check more details on their pricing page.
4. FoodReady
Food Ready is a food safety software solution crafted to aid food businesses in recording and managing daily/weekly production logs, ensuring compliance with various certifications like HACCP, GFSI, SQP, and others on both national and international levels.
Functioning as an intelligent platform, Food Ready simplifies the establishment of food safety practices using a mobile device, saving time and reducing hassle. It also provides the option to collaborate with certified food safety experts who can assist in creating and reviewing documentation for food safety programs.
Key Features:
- Track Critical Records: Monitor and keep track of essential records to ensure compliance with safety standards.
- Centralize Information: Gather and store all relevant information in one central location for easy access and management.
- Monitor in Real-Time: Keep an eye on food safety measures and data in real time for prompt action.
- Easily Access Records: Quickly access and retrieve records, making the management of food safety documentation straightforward.
Pricing:
- Pricing is not available, you can contact FoodReady and ask for a quote. However, a 14-day free trial is available.
5. Effivity
Effivity provides a user-friendly solution to automate HACCP and food safety management at a competitive price.
With easy configuration that adjusts as your business grows, Effivity ensures compliance with HACCP and other recognized food safety standards like ISO 22000:2018 and BRC.
Key Features:
- Customizable HACCP Plan: Tailor your HACCP plan to fit your specific business needs.
- Automation of Business Process Management: Streamline and automate various business processes for efficiency.
- Comprehensive Compliance: Ensure compliance with multiple food safety standards, including ISO 22000:2018 and BRC.
- Paperless Processes: Embrace eco-friendly practices by eliminating the need for paper in your processes.
Pricing:
- Effivity pricing starts at $97/month (free trial included).
The following five preliminary steps should be accomplished before the HACCP principles in developing a HACCP Plan.
Step 1: Assemble the HACCP Team and Identify the Scope
A multidisciplinary team must be assembled as the first step toward a successful HACCP system implementation.
Organizations should ensure that the appropriate knowledge and expertise are available to support the implementation of the HACCP system.
HACCP training should be provided if the team is inexperienced.
On the other hand, the HACCP team needs to identify the scope of the HACCP system that will be applied throughout the organization and the prerequisite programs required within the boundaries of the HACCP system.
All employees dealing with the food production process must understand the basic food safety principles.
Step 2: Describe the Product and its Distribution
The HACCP team needs to understand the products well before conducting the HACCP analysis by consolidating relevant information about the product and distribution methods.
These include composition, physical and chemical characteristics, processing methods and the technologies used, packaging, shelf life, storage condition, and distribution method.
Step 3: Describe the Intended Use and Consumers of the Food
The HACCP team shall describe the intended use and consumer of the product. Any weak groups of the population may require further consideration on the additional specifications required and the relevant competent authority’s regulation that needs to be complied with.
Step 4: Construct a Flow Diagram that Describes the Processes
All steps in the processes are equally important to note as a basis for conducting the HACCP analysis. A flow diagram helps the team to detail the processes and indicate all inputs such as:
- Outsourced processes
- Reworking and recycling
- Where end products, intermediate, waste, and by-products are released or removed.
- Where raw materials, ingredients, processing aids, packaging materials, utilities, and intermediate products enter the flow.
Step 5: Verify the Flow Diagram
The relevant team member with appropriate knowledge of the processing operation should ensure the accuracy of the flow diagram constructed in the previous step by doing an on-site confirmation.
Use Cases of HACCP
The HACCP Critical Control Point Inspection can be applied to a wide range of industries and establishments, including:
- Food Service Establishments: Restaurants, cafes, and catering companies can utilize HACCP inspection to maintain high food safety standards and ensure compliance with regulations.
- Food Manufacturing Facilities: Production plants and food processing facilities can implement the inspection to assess and validate the effectiveness of their control measures in preventing hazards.
- Retail Food Outlets: Grocery stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores can use the inspection to monitor critical control points and guarantee the safety of the products they sell.
- Healthcare Facilities: Hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare settings with food service operations can conduct HACCP inspections to safeguard the health and well-being of patients and residents.
Challenges of Selecting HACCP Software
Selecting the right HACCP software can be a challenging task as potential users face various obstacles such as:
- Complexity: Some HACCP software can be complex, making it difficult for users to understand and navigate the system.
- Compatibility: It can be challenging to find software that is compatible with existing business systems and processes.
- Cost: The cost of HACCP software can be high, making it difficult for small businesses to invest in it.
- Integration: Integrating HACCP software with other systems can be a challenge, especially for larger organizations with complex processes.
- Customization: Some HACCP software may not be customizable, making it challenging to tailor it to specific business needs.
- User Adoption: The success of HACCP software largely depends on user adoption, and it can be difficult to get all users to embrace the new system.
- Technical Support: Users may experience technical issues with the software, and finding timely and effective technical support can be a challenge
Conclusion
In conclusion, HACCP inspection management software is crucial for businesses across various industries to ensure compliance with industry-specific guidelines and enhance food safety protocols.
With the increasing demand for efficient and effective critical control point inspections, businesses need a reliable solution that can streamline the process and provide valuable insights into inspection data.
Xenia stands out as the go-to solution for businesses looking for the best HACCP software applications these days.
However, if it's your first time using a HACCP online solution, we recommend going on a trialing spree on different platforms to see how each program's features pans out against your business requirements.
This approach offers a guaranteed way of testing a HACCP program before signing up for a paid account.
That being said, in case your favorite software isn't mentioned on the list, feel free to reach out to us. We'll be more than happy to update our best digital HACCP recommendations list for you!
FAQs
- How does HACCP software assist in regulatory compliance?
HACCP software helps businesses comply with regulatory standards by providing a systematic approach to identifying and controlling hazards in food production.
The software ensures that critical control points are monitored, documented, and managed according to industry-specific regulations, reducing the risk of non-compliance.
- Can HACCP software be customized for different industries and business sizes?
Yes, many HACCP software solutions offer customization options to adapt to the unique needs of different industries and businesses.
Whether in food manufacturing, hospitality, or agriculture, the software can often be tailored to specific processes, compliance requirements, and the scale of operations.
- How does HACCP software contribute to continuous improvement in food safety?
HACCP software plays a role in continuous improvement by providing analytics and insights into inspection data. It helps businesses identify trends, areas for improvement, and optimization opportunities.
Streamline Food Safety, Maintenance and Daily Operations with Xenia
Xenia unifies food and beverage operations with tools to standardize, track and measure work across every team, asset and facility.
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Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
Food Safety Management
🌡️ Automatic Temperature Monitoring
Xenia leverages temperature sensors that utilize both Bluetooth and LoRaWAN technology to transmit data reliably to your Xenia account. The monitors work continuously in a range of 40°C to 125°C and an accuracy of +/- 0.4°C. When an temperature deviates from a pre-set acceptable range, management is notified to investigate and resolve.
🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step. This allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
✨ Corrective Actions
Operationalize inspections with fast work order assignment arising from a failed inspection step. All corrective data is stored in the checklist submission for auditing and accountability.
📋 Compliance Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
Maintenance Management
🛠️ Work Orders
Create work orders with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
🧰 Preventive Maintenance
Create a preventive maintenance calendar to ensure asset uptime is not compromised. Attach images, templates, videos and notes to every task and assign to a team or individual for completion.
📲 QR Codes
Generate and attach QR codes to equipment and facility locations to enable fast and accurate inspections and data logs.
📁 Equipment Work History
View work history for every asset and sub asset in Xenia. Review performance data and enable corrective actions to improve your operation.
Daily Operations
✔️ Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
💪 Team Accountability
Defeat pencil whipping and disorganized responsibility assessments by standardizing operations with Xenia. Track time, collect photos, send messages and ensure high quality work.
📊 Team Performance Reporting
Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
Streamline End to End Operations With The Best HACCP Software
Xenia unifies BOH and front-ended food and beverage operations with tools to standardize, track and measure work across different business platforms.
Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
🌡️ Automatic Temperature Monitoring
Xenia leverages temperature sensors that utilize both Bluetooth and LoRaWAN technology to transmit data reliably to your Xenia account.
The monitors work continuously in a range of 40°C to 125°C and an accuracy of +/- 0.4°C. When an temperature deviates from a pre-set acceptable range, management is notified to investigate and resolve.
✔️ Restaurant Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step.
Doing so allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
🛠️ Work Orders
Create work orders with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
📋 Compliance Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
📊 Team Performance Reporting
Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
💪 Team Accountability
Defeat pencil whipping and disorganized responsibility assessments by standardizing operations with Xenia. Track time, collect photos, send messages and ensure high quality work.
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