Food Plant — HACCP Monitoring

This use case shows how a food plant configures three Critical Control Points (CCPs) in Rela, monitors them in real time, and handles a deviation with the complete corrective action workflow.

Scenario

Alimentos del Norte produces frozen prepared meals. Their process has three critical points where food safety must be verified:

1. Tunnel oven — Cooking temperature must be ≥ 165 degrees C to eliminate pathogens
2. Finished product freezer — Must maintain ≤ -18 degrees C
3. CIP system — Cleaning solution pH must be between 2.0 and 3.0

Step 1: Create assets and data sources

The plant already has its three pieces of equipment connected to Rela:

• Tunnel oven via OPC UA (reading every 10 seconds)
• Freezer via Modbus TCP (reading every 60 seconds)
• CIP system via MQTT (publishes when washing)

Step 2: Configure the 3 CCPs

CCP 1: Cooking temperature

1. Food Safety -> HACCP -> New CCP
2. Configuration:
   • Name: "Tunnel Oven Cooking Temperature"
   • Equipment: Tunnel Oven
   • Metric: temperature
   • Hazard type: Biological
   • Lower limit: 165 degrees C
   • Upper limit: 200 degrees C
   • Grace period: 30 seconds
   • Responsible: Production chef

CCP 2: Freezing temperature

• Name: "Finished Product Freezer Temperature"
• Lower limit: -25 degrees C
• Upper limit: -18 degrees C
• Grace period: 900 seconds (15 min)
• Responsible: Maintenance technician

CCP 3: CIP pH

• Name: "CIP Solution pH"
• Lower limit: 2.0
• Upper limit: 3.0
• Grace period: 0 seconds (immediate action)
• Responsible: Quality supervisor

Step 3: Normal operation

The HACCP dashboard shows: "3 of 3 CCPs under control"

Each card shows the current reading, limits, and green status. Readings update in real time.

Step 4: Oven deviation

At 10:42 AM, a burner in the oven has an intermittent failure. The temperature drops:

Timeline

• 10:42:00 — Temperature: 164.8 degrees C (below 165). Status: Deviation detected (warning). Dashboard turns yellow.
• 10:42:10 — Temperature: 163.5 degrees C. WhatsApp to chef: "Deviation in CCP Cooking Temperature. Current: 163.5 degrees C. Limit: 165 degrees C. You have 30 sec."
• 10:42:30 — 30-second grace period expired. Temperature: 162.1 degrees C. Status: Corrective action required. Dashboard turns red.
• 10:42:31 — Automatic task created: "Corrective action required — CCP Tunnel Oven Cooking Temperature". Assigned to production chef.
• 10:42:32 — Critical WhatsApp: "ACTION REQUIRED: CCP Cooking Temperature out of control. 162.1 degrees C. Follow corrective action steps."
• 10:45:00 — Chef arrives, checks the burner, activates backup.
• 10:48:00 — Temperature returns to 166.2 degrees C. Deviation resolves.

Corrective action record

The chef records the corrective action from their phone:

• Description: "Burner B3 with intermittent failure. Backup burner B4 activated. Production continued after verifying stable temperature for 2 minutes."
• Product disposition: Hold — "45 units that passed through the oven during the 6-minute deviation are held for quality evaluation."
• Affected batch: BATCH-2026-0330-AM-02
• Root cause: "Failed solenoid valve on burner B3"
• Preventive action: "Schedule preventive maintenance of solenoid valves every 3 months"

Result

Everything is automatically documented for audit:

• 3 CCPs monitored 24/7 without manual intervention
• Deviation detected in less than 1 second
• Notification to responsible person in less than 10 seconds
• Corrective action documented with complete traceability
• Affected product identified and held
• Daily HACCP report includes the incident automatically

Before Rela, this deviation would have gone unnoticed until the next shift's record review.