HACCP locations, zones and limits
All plans
How to set up the locations and zones of your bakery, set their temperature or pH limits, their frequency and alerts, and keep documents in folders.
What it is for
A location is a physical place in your bakery: a cold room, the freezer, a worktable, the oven, the shop display cabinet. It does two jobs at once: it’s the point where HACCP checks are recorded, with its safe temperature or pH range, and, if you mark it as storage, the place where stock is kept by lot.
Zones group locations (Production, Storeroom, Shop) so you can record a whole shift in one go. And folders hold your HACCP documents: certificates, pest control contracts, water analyses. They’re set up by the manager or the Food safety officer.
Before you start
- Make a list of your cold rooms, freezers, display cabinets and control points, with the temperature range of each one.
- Decide who the Responsible person for each location is.
- Locations, zones and folders are managed by the administrator, the manager and the Food safety officer.
Create the zones
Go to HACCP › Locations, Zones tab, and click New zone. Enter the Name, a Description and, if you like, an Image. Create only a few: zones are what you choose when you start bulk recording for the shift.
Create a location and its limits
In the Locations tab (locations and alerts), click New location:
Name and category
Enter the Name and choose the Category: Refrigerated chamber, Workstation, Warehouse, Machinery, Water control or Others.
Safe range
For temperature-controlled locations, enter the Min. temperature and Max. temperature; for water control ones, the pH range. Decimals are allowed. In accounts with imperial units, temperatures are in °F.
Zone, person in charge and storage
Assign the Zone and the Responsible person. Tick Is storage if goods are kept there: that way it appears in goods-in, orders and stock.
Record checks
Tick which checks are done at that location: Cleaning, Pest control, Others and, for a storage location, also Temperature. Click Create.
| Name | Category | Zone | Optimal range | Warehouse | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold room 1 · dairy | Refrigerated chamber | Production | 0 °C · 4 °C | Yes | 1🔔 |
| Freezer | Refrigerated chamber | Storeroom | −25 °C · −18 °C | Yes | 🔔 |
| Shop display cabinet | Refrigerated chamber | Shop | 0.5 °C · 6 °C | No | 🔔 |
| Production water tap | Water control | Production | pH 6.5 · 8.5 | No | 🔔 |
| Worktable | Workstation | Production | — | No | 🔔 |
- 1The bell opens the location’s alerts: Today, Periodicity and Reminders.
Frequency and alerts
Click the location’s bell and open the Periodicity tab. For each check:
- Requires periodic record: switch it on so the location asks for records.
- Alert frequency (days): 1 means every day; 7, once a week.
- Records per day: the shifts. Two for a cold room (morning and afternoon), one for cleaning.
- Days with no required record: click the days you’re closed so they don’t show up as pending.
- The Start date of the alerts, an optional Description and Email alert.
Overdue records can be filled in up to a number of days back (90 by default). You change it in Configuration › General Data › HACCP records, between 1 and 730 days; useful when moving the records you kept on paper into Recipok. In Reminders, each user chooses when to receive notifications. How checks are recorded is explained in HACCP records.
Document folders
In HACCP › Folders (Document Management screen) you organise your HACCP files. Click New Folder, give it a name and upload the documents into it: pest control certificate, water analysis, maintenance contracts, staff training. You can create subfolders, rename them and delete files or folders.
Tips
From the list you can Duplicate a location to quickly create several identical cold rooms, and export it to Excel. If you have sensors, assign each one to its cold room: see Dobbox temperature sensors.
The limits of each cold room must match those in your food safety management plan. If you use the HACCP plan, a critical control point can become the daily check of one of these locations.