Viewing and Creating Associations

Associations are user-defined relationships between an item or inventory category and a Critical Control Point (CCP).

Only create associations for inventory categories or items that do not fit into the critical limits defined in the default CCP. For instance, the operational step for Serving may have a default CCP for serving hot foods. However, the critical limits for serving hot food are not appropriate for all of the items you serve. Fruit, for instance, might be served cold. For this, you would associate the item category for fruit with a CCP that has critical limits more appropriate to serving fruit.

It is recommended that you use the default CCPs when you are able and create associations to secondary CCPs provided in WebSMARTT, or to new CCPs you add, for inventory categories when you can. If a particular item falls outside the range for both the default and the inventory category association, you might have to create a CCP association for that individual item. You will save a lot of time by creating associations for inventory categories rather than individual items.

When you assign a process to an item, there may be default CCPs attached to that item, one for each of the operational steps associated with that process. When you are recording temperatures for a particular operational step, if the default CCP and corresponding corrective actions are appropriate, use it. If not, look through the secondary CCPs provided and see if one of those is appropriate. Otherwise, create a new CCP to associate with the item category for which you are recording temperatures.

Viewing Association Information

The View Association Information page allows you to search for an item or an inventory category and view the association information related to that item or inventory category.

After entering an item or inventory category and clicking View, the detailed information for the item association is shown.

The Info Detail section contains the Item ID or Inventory Category and Description.

The Process Information section lists the site type and HACCP Processes assigned to this item/inventory category.

The Associations section contains nine tabs, one for each operational step. Click on any tab to view the CCP associated with this item/inventory category for that particular operational step. CCPs can be edited if they are user-defined CCPs.

Creating a New Association

If you want to create a item association, use the Association Wizard and create a new association.

1. On the View All Associations page, click Add New.
   
2. After the Wizard opens, search for the desired item or inventory category and click Add.
   To remove a previously added item or inventory category, click the red X next to the item or inventory category.
   Note: It is recommended that you add associations primarily to inventory categories rather than individual items. Only create associations for individual items in special cases.
3. Click Next.
   
4. Select an operational step to associate with the selected items or inventory categories.
5. Click Next.
   
6. Select a Critical Control Point (CCP) to associate with the selected items or inventory categories.
7. Click Next.
   
8. After verifying the information in the wizard, click Save and Finish.