Every food warehouse has the same ritual: someone walks the chillers and freezers at set times, writes a number on a sheet, and initials it. Someone else wipes down, sweeps and empties bins, and ticks a list. It works until the day it doesn't: the sheet is filled in at four in the afternoon for the whole day, the person who was meant to do it was on holiday, or the reading was out of range and nobody wrote down what happened next.
What a good check record contains
Whatever system you use, an auditor or an environmental health officer will want the same few things for each check:
- What was checked, for example "Chiller 2".
- The reading, not just "OK".
- When it was taken, as a time rather than a day.
- Who took it.
- What was done if the reading was outside the safe range.
- Evidence, such as a photo, where the check can't be judged from a number.
In England, chilled food is generally required to be kept at 8°C or below, and many businesses set a tighter target such as 5°C. Frozen food is normally held at -18°C or colder. Your own food safety plan sets the limits that apply to you, so use those.
Why paper fails
- Pencil whipping. Readings are written in batches, from memory, and look suspiciously perfect.
- No follow-up. An out-of-range reading is circled, and that is the end of it.
- Nobody owns it. "The warehouse" checks the chiller, which means no particular person does.
- No alert when it is missed. You find out at the end of the month when someone reviews the sheets.
Make each check a task with an owner
The fix is to treat each check as a task given to a named person, with a due time, a checklist and a rule for what counts as done.
- A temperature check has a reading, a safe range and, if you want, a photo of the display.
- A cleaning round has a tick list: surfaces, floors, bins, and a photo of the finished area.
- Repeating tasks come back on their own: daily at 06:00 and 14:00, weekly on Fridays, monthly for the deep clean.
Put the right person on the right shift
A task assigned to someone who isn't at work doesn't get done. When you assign a task, check the roster for that day and time. In Fleetnyx, the assignment screen warns you if the person is not on shift, is marked absent, or the task is due outside their hours. For a repeating task it checks the next four weeks, so you find out that Thursday isn't covered before Thursday.
Out-of-range readings should demand a note
A reading outside the range shouldn't be blocked, because a real reading of 7°C is better recorded than not. But it should not be possible to complete the task without a note on what was done: stock moved, engineer called, door left open. Fleetnyx accepts the reading, requires the note and shows the reading in red to the office.
Know when a task is missed
An overdue task should tell someone. In Fleetnyx, the people you choose for the overdue alert are emailed once when a task is still not done after it was due, with a link to it. You choose who: the warehouse manager, the transport manager, or an owner who has no account.
Putting it together
The warehouse app shows each person their own tasks on a handheld, grouped into To do, Overdue and Done, with the reading field, the checklist and the photo button. Managers assign and review them in warehouse tasks and compliance checks. A completed task keeps the readings, notes, photos, the person and the time, and the next occurrence is created automatically.
This is a record of your checks, not a replacement for your food safety management system or your legal duties. But a dated reading with a name and a photo is a far better answer to "show me the log" than a clipboard.