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Set up a CCP and its critical limit

Admins add CCPs from the template library or from scratch, set the critical limit, and attach the CCP to products so it shows up at packaging.

Setting up CCPs requires the admin or owner role.

  1. Open Setup, then Critical control points. That is the Critical Control Points page. The Today dashboard also links to it while you are setting up monitoring cadences.
  2. The fastest path is the template library. Click Add From Template Library, find a check like a pH test or cold storage temperature, open the ⋯ menu on its row, and choose Add to account. The template is copied into your account where you can edit it.
  3. To build one from scratch, click Add CCP instead. Enter the name, result type, critical limit, and cadence, then click Create CCP.
  4. The instrument, Sync Batch pH, measurement parameter, and corrective action procedure are set on the edit page. Open the CCP and click Edit, then Update CCP to save.
KB facsimile: Critical Control Points list with template library

Each CCP has:

  • A name and a definition in plain language.
  • A result type: Numeric measurement or Pass / Fail observation.
  • For numeric CCPs, a critical limit: the value, the unit, and the direction (at or below, at or above, below, above). All three are set together. FourFoxes uses this to grade every reading automatically.
  • A Structured cadence: Once per batch, or Every N hours with Hours between checks set from 1 to 24. The cadence is what puts the check on the Today dashboard and marks it missed when nobody logs it in time. Choose No structured cadence to leave it off the dashboard.
  • Measurement Parameter and Monitoring Frequency: your HACCP plan wording for what to observe and how often. The HACCP Reports show this text with the CCP.
  • An optional instrument, so each reading records which meter took it.
  • A corrective action procedure: the steps your team should follow when the check fails. Operators see this text next to a failed reading on the packaging screen.

Then attach the CCP to your products. On the product form, check the CCP under Food Safety Checks (CCPs). That is what makes it appear on the packaging screen for those batches.

One CCP per account can have Sync Batch pH checked. With that on, saving a pH on a batch creates the monitoring record automatically, and a pH logged against that CCP in the packaging panel fills in the batch's Batch pH. Both only apply to products whose product type has Tracks pH checked.

Record where a limit came from

If a process authority has issued a letter for your product, record it as a filed scheduled process. Its limit is then the one FourFoxes shows for that product type. Without one, FourFoxes shows the regulatory figure. Recording a filing requires the admin or owner role; members can view it.

  1. Open Catalog, then Product Types, and open the product type.
  2. On the Standard Operating Procedure card, click Record your filed scheduled process.
  3. Enter the Process authority and the Filing reference.
  4. Under The limit the filing sets, enter the Filed limit, its Direction, and its Unit.
  5. Optionally attach the Letter this filing was read from and add Notes.
  6. Click Save filed scheduled process.

If the letter covers one product rather than the whole product type, pick that product under File for one of these products instead on the same form. Once saved, the card button reads View this filed scheduled process. To correct a filing, record it again: saving updates it in place.

To check every limit at once, open Food Safety, then Where limits came from (admin or owner). It lists two kinds of problem: Controls that disagree with a filing, and Controls with nothing on file behind them, which is a pH sync CCP with no filing for the products it covers. When both lists are empty, the page says so. It only reports. Nothing on it changes a limit or a record.

Critical limit and monitoring settings on the CCP edit page The Edit Critical Control Point page for a pH Check. The Critical Limit section has Critical Limit Value 4.2, Critical Limit Unit pH and Comparison Direction Less than or equal to. The Monitoring Configuration section has the Instrument, a checked Sync Batch pH box, Structured cadence set to Once per batch, and a Corrective Action Procedure, then the Update CCP button. Edit Critical Control Point: pH Check Critical Limit Critical Limit Value 4.2 Critical Limit Unit pH Comparison Direction Less than or equal to (<=) Monitoring Configuration Instrument pH Meter A Sync Batch pH Structured cadence Once per batch Corrective Action Procedure Hold the batch, re-acidify, and retest pH before packaging. Update CCP
The critical limit, pH sync, cadence and corrective action procedure on a CCP's edit page.
Set the limit before monitoring

A numeric CCP with no critical limit cannot grade readings. FourFoxes rejects measurements against it and asks you to configure the limit first.

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