A corrective action form is the record of a problem and what was done about it: what went wrong and to which lot, what was done with the product right away, why it happened, what happens to the affected product, what keeps it from happening again, and who checked that it worked. Every maker has problems; the form is what shows an inspector, a buyer or yourself next year that each one was handled and didn't come back. Below is what goes on one, the federal rules that ask for it, a filled-in example for a batch of salsa with a high pH, and a free template with a log.
The short version
- One form for each problem, opened the day it's found.
- Name the product, the lot and how much is affected.
- Contain it first: put the lot on hold, so nothing ships while you decide.
- Find the root cause: ask why until the answer is something you can change.
- Decide what happens to the affected product, and record it.
- Fix the cause, give it an owner and a date, and check later that it worked.
- TaroStack puts a lot on hold, records the checks on each batch against their limits, and traces who got what. More below.
What goes on a corrective action form
| Part | What it holds |
|---|---|
| The problem | Number, date, who found it, product and lot, quantity, where in the process |
| What happened | The check, its limit, and the result that missed it |
| Containment | What was done with the product right away: held, tagged, stopped |
| Root cause | Why it happened, asked until the answer is something to change |
| Correction | What happens to the affected lot: reworked, reprocessed, released after evaluation, or destroyed |
| Corrective action | What changes so it doesn't happen again: a step, a tool, a check, training |
| Owner and due date | Who does it, by when |
| Verification | How you checked it worked, and when |
| Sign-off | Who closed it |
The correction deals with this lot; the corrective action deals with the next hundred. A form with only the first is a problem waiting to happen again.
The rules that ask for one
An acidified food, like a jarred salsa, that deviates from its scheduled process, or whose finished pH is over 4.6, has to be reprocessed by a process a process authority says is adequate, processed as a low-acid food, or set aside for a process authority to evaluate, and the evaluation and its results are recorded (21 CFR 114.89). A facility under FDA's preventive controls rule has written corrective action procedures that identify and correct the problem, reduce the chance it happens again, evaluate the affected food for safety, and keep affected food out of commerce if its safety can't be assured (21 CFR 117.150). Smaller businesses may not be under that rule, but the same four steps are what any buyer's audit asks to see. What a food safety plan holds is in what is a food safety plan. This is general information, not legal advice.
A filled-in example: a salsa batch with a high pH
Saguaro Salsa Co., a made-up salsa maker in Tucson, Arizona, I use in these examples, finds a problem at the end of a batch of jarred salsa:
| Part | Saguaro Salsa's form, CA-2026-007 |
|---|---|
| The problem | Salsa roja, 16 oz jars, lot SR-260922B, 240 jars; found at the finished-product pH check |
| What happened | pH 4.45 on three jars; the scheduled process requires 4.2 or lower |
| Containment | Lot put on hold, all 20 cases tagged; nothing had shipped |
| Root cause | Less vinegar than the recipe; measured by volume with a new jug whose 4-liter mark was off; new tools weren't checked against the scale |
| Correction | Set aside for the process authority, who said to reprocess with added vinegar; reprocessed as SR-260922B-R, pH 4.05, released |
| Corrective action | Vinegar weighed, not measured; a line for its weight on the batch sheet; new measuring tools checked against the scale; pH meter calibrated every morning |
| Verification | The next 10 batches: vinegar weights recorded, pH 3.95 to 4.10; checked October 8 |
The five whys ran from "the pH was high" to "there was no step to check new measuring tools", which is something the kitchen could change. How a pH check works, and why the meter is calibrated, is in pH testing for acidified foods, and what holding a lot means is in hold and release procedure.
The log
One line for each corrective action, with its due date and the day it closed, so nothing stays open by accident:
| Number | Opened | Product and lot | What happened | Closed | Days open | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA-2026-005 | Aug 4 | Hot sauce, HS-260803A | Label missing a line on 30 bottles | Aug 5 | 1 | Closed |
| CA-2026-006 | Sep 15 | Tortillas, FT-260915A | Cooler at 44°F at the morning check | Sep 19 | 4 | Closed late |
| CA-2026-007 | Sep 22 | Salsa roja, SR-260922B | pH 4.45 against a limit of 4.2 | Oct 8 | 16 | Closed |
A product that misses its spec is often written up on a nonconforming product form first, and the corrective action follows from it; how that form works is in nonconforming product form.
Get the template
Download the corrective action form. Three sheets: a blank form that prints on one page; the salsa batch above, filled in; and a corrective action log, where the days open and the status, Open, Closed or Closed late, fill in from the dates. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
A form on paper says the lot is on hold, but the cases are still in the warehouse with the others, and the person picking Friday's orders hasn't read the form. Finding which customers got a lot, if it had shipped, means searching the invoices. And the pH reading that started it is on a clipboard by the stove.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack puts a lot on hold, records the checks on each batch against their limits, and traces who got what.
Holds that stop the picking. A lot put on hold is kept from sale: it can't be picked for an order until someone releases it, so containment isn't a tag on a case and a hope.
Checks against their limits. A batch record carries your own checks, like the finished pH, with the limit written before the batch and who signed it, so a result outside its limit is on the record of the batch it belongs to.
A trace in one report. If a lot has shipped, one recall report shows which customers got it and what's still on your shelves, and the reprocessing is a batch that uses the held lot and makes a new one.
| The job | Paper form | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Keep the lot from shipping | A tag on the cases | A hold, kept from sale |
| The pH and its limit | A clipboard | On the batch record, with sign-off |
| Who got the lot | Search the invoices | One recall report |
| The reprocessed lot | A note on the form | A batch with its own lot |
Lots, holds, batch records and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.