Digital HACCP records for Irish food businesses

What “digital HACCP” means

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) is the way every food business is required to control food safety under EU law (Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Article 5). Part of it is keeping records: fridge temperatures, deliveries, cooking, cooling, cleaning, training, allergens. Digital HACCP simply means keeping those records in software instead of on paper sheets. See what HACCP is, in plain English.

Why kitchens move off paper

• Paper sheets get filled in at the end of a shift, or the end of the week.
• Initials don’t show who really did a check, and ticks don’t show a reading.
• An out-of-range reading on paper often has nothing written about what happened next.
• Folders get wet, greasy and lost, and finding one delivery’s batch code can take an hour.
• The owner can’t see what was done until the folder lands on the desk.

What to look for in HACCP software

1. A login for every person, so every record has a real name and time.
2. Records that can’t be quietly changed. Corrections should keep the original, with who changed it and why.
3. Corrective actions built in. An out-of-range reading should ask what was done.
4. It works without signal, in a cold room or a basement kitchen, and syncs later without losing anything.
5. Set up to your plan, not a generic one: your fridges, ranges, check times and cleaning list.
6. Easy to show an inspector: a read-only view and a printable report.
7. Your data in the EU, and exports you can take with you.
8. Irish guidance: FSAI figures and the Safe Catering Pack’s records, not UK ones.

How Hygivo does it

• Deliveries: photograph the label and Hygivo reads the batch code and date for staff to check. Delivery records
• Fridges and freezers: temperature rounds at the times you set, with out-of-range readings flagged to managers straight away. Temperature logs
• Cooking, cooling, reheating and hot holding, kept together by batch. Cooking and hot food
• Cleaning schedules with due, done and missed tasks. Cleaning
• Allergens for every dish, reviewed by a person and marked for review when an ingredient changes. Allergens
• Hygiene inspections, training and fitness to work, as in the Safe Catering Pack. Safe Catering Pack records in Hygivo
• Records and reports: search anything, and download a PDF or Excel report for any period. Records

Getting started in an afternoon

1. Write down what you check today. Your fridges and freezers, the cleaning list, what you record at deliveries and for cooking. Your Safe Catering Pack or HACCP plan is the source.
2. Set it up in the app. Add each unit with the range you work to, your cleaning tasks and how often they are due, and the checks you do for food you cook. Hygivo suggests the common ones for your kind of premises.
3. Invite your team. Each person joins with their own account from an invite link.
4. Pick a start date. From that day the app is the record. Keep your old paper sheets.
5. Check after a week. Find yesterday’s fridge readings, a delivery by batch code, and download a week’s report. If any of that is hard, fix it now, not on inspection day.

Keeping it working

Software only helps if the checks are done. A manager should look at the day’s checks and open issues every day, and review the week’s records before signing off. In Hygivo, the weekly review lists every exception (out-of-range readings, rejected deliveries, missed checks) so nothing is signed off unseen.

Built for Irish food businesses

Hygivo is made in Ireland for cafés, restaurants, pubs, hotels, takeaways, food trucks, caterers, nursing homes, crèches and school canteens. It starts you with the FSAI guidance figures, and your data is stored in the EU (Ireland region). See the checks for your kind of premises.

This is general information, not advice for your business. Your food safety management system (HACCP plan) and FSAI guidance are the reference. Hygivo is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FSAI.