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Receiving Procedure: Manual Process vs. WMS-Driven: What Changes for HACCP Compliance

When I first wrote our Receiving Procedure for Food Warehouses post, I described a fully manual process with countless paper forms, handwritten batch numbers, and quality holds enforced by a sticky note on a pallet. That process can absolutely satisfy HACCP requirements; plenty of certified warehouses run on it. But a Warehouse Management System changes how consistently those requirements get met, and for a HACCP program, consistency is the whole point. A control that only works when someone remembers to follow it isn't really a control. Here's what changes, principle by principle. Receiving Against an ASN In a manual process, receiving staff inspect a delivery with limited advance knowledge of what's on the truck. A WMS lets suppliers send an Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) before arrival. This includes details such as expected quantities, batch numbers, and sometimes expiry dates, pre-loaded into the system. This shifts receiving from a discovery task to a verification task...
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Receiving Procedure for Food Warehouses: HACCP Essentials

Receiving Procedure

Receiving is arguably the most important activity in a food warehouse. Get it wrong, and no amount of good handling downstream can fix it.  As the saying goes in computing, "garbage in, garbage out." This guide walks through the quality checks every food warehouse should run at receiving: truck inspection, product inspection, and documentation, all built around the hazards identified in your HACCP program.

Delivery Truck Inspection

Before anything is offloaded, inspect the delivery truck itself:

  • Seal integrity: check for any signs of tampering. An intact seal is proof the product hasn't been tampered with or sabotaged in transit.

  • General cleanliness: designated receiving personnel should check for visible dirt, pests, offensive odors, or other contaminants that could pose a risk to the food product.

  • Truck temperature: for chilled and frozen products, check the truck's temperature readout against the receiving standard set in your HACCP program.

Product Inspection

Temperature-sensitive products

 The product temperature is measured using a clean and sanitized calibrated thermometer. I advise using a probe thermometer as opposed to the infra-red thermometer. The reason is simple- Infra-red thermometer only measures surface temperature, yet the probe thermometer measures the product's internal temperature, which gives a better understanding of the temperature status of the products. However, when using a probe thermometer, care should be taken not to pierce a product packaging as this can be a source of contamination. The probe is placed between two primary packages when taking the product temperature.

 For a representative temperature status of the product, the readings are taken repetitively during offloading. For a better insight into the temperature of a particular product, pick samples from the front, middle, and back of the product compartment. 

For delivery trucks with temperature monitoring devices, the data is downloaded and checked to see if the product has been in a specified temperature range during transportation.

 Inspect the product cartons for sufficient expiry date, proper labeling, and any damage sustained during transportation. Damaged goods are non-conformed or put on hold for further inspections by designated quality personnel.

A properly labeled product conforms to the following;

  • Ingredients contained in the product.
  • Health risks associated with the product.
  • Storage instructions.
  • Use by date (expiry date).

Note: These are not standard requirements for a product label, they can change depending on regulatory, statutory laws, or client's needs.

 The products must have an accompanying Certificate of Conformance (COC) or Certificate of Analysis (COA) from the supplier. This certification is evidence that the supplier followed all the statutory and regulatory rules during the production of the product. 

If the food product deviates from any of the above criteria, it is labeled as a non-conforming product and transferred to a designated storage area that meets its storage instructions - Put chilled products in the chiller's non-conforming area, and frozen non-conforming products into the non-conforming area in a freezer. Record all non-conforming product details in a non-conforming form.

Please note: 

  • The product should not have signs of prior temperature abuse or signs of thawing and refreezing such as big ice crystals in or on the product.
  • The product temperature range is given by a regulatory body, a statutory body, or a client. But generally-chilling products are kept at 1°C-4°C and frozen products at -18°C (max < -12° C).

Dry products and packaging material

Just like temperature-sensitive products, a dry product consignment must have a certificate of analysis or certificate of conformance. Check the dry products for sufficient expiry, damaged goods, proper labeling, and other contaminants that could make the product unsafe for consumption. Record all product details in the receiving form, and for the non-conforming products, their details are recorded in the non-conforming record.

Allergen Segregation

Where a delivery contains allergen products such as nuts, dairy, gluten, soy, or other declared allergens, confirm they're clearly identified against the delivery note and physically separated from non-allergen stock from the moment they're offloaded. Mixed loads are the highest-risk scenario here: allergen and non-allergen pallets arriving on the same truck should never be stacked together or placed on a shared pallet during receiving, even temporarily. Receiving personnel should know your allergen list and be able to spot it on a delivery note without needing to cross-check.

Batch and lot number capture

Every carton or pallet should have its batch or lot number recorded on the Receiving Monitoring Form at the point of receiving, not added later from memory. This single step is what makes a recall possible: if a quality issue surfaces downstream, lot numbers are how you trace exactly which delivery, which supplier batch, and which other products in your warehouse may be affected. Skipping this step at receiving is the single most common reason a recall takes days instead of hours.

Receiving area

In the case of temperature-sensitive products, the receiving activities are carried out in a temperature control dock maintained at 1°C-7°C for not over one hour, but the warehouse management can choose a stricter temperature and time range. 

Receiving personnel

Designated receiving personnel must be knowledgeable about the different receiving inspection, corrective actions in case of a deviation, and the non-conformance procedure. The receiving personnel should be conversant with documentation or record forms used in the receiving process. 

Documents used

  • Receiving Monitoring Form
  • Goods Received Note
  • Certificate of Conformity/ Certificate of Analysis
  • Non-conforming form/record

Note: The receiving stage can be a Critical Control Point or a Critical Point depends on the individual company's Risk Assessment.

Check Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 for samples of Receiving Monitoring Form and Goods Received Note, respectively.

Appendix 1






Appendix 2

















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