Product / Programme Alignment Calculation
You have written the plan. But does it actually comply?
Your HACCP plan, RMP, or food safety programme may be complete — but does it actually satisfy the standards you’re measured against? Porticus compares any plan against any parent standard and shows exactly where it lines up, falls short, or conflicts.
Writing a plan is one thing. Proving it aligns is another.
Most technical and compliance managers build plans from consultant templates, prior-year documents, old audit notes, and tribal floor knowledge. Then they submit and hope. Audits expose the gaps. Rejections expose the conflicts. New markets expose where the plan does not go far enough. Programme Alignment Calculation runs that comparison up front, before audit, before submission, and before rejection.
You provide two inputs. Porticus returns a four-section alignment report.
The child programme
The plan you wrote: HACCP, RMP, food safety plan, environmental plan, or internal procedures. Upload a document or link from your existing Porticus workspace.
The parent standard
The target to align against: legislation, certification, sustainability scheme, export requirement, or customer code.
The AI reads both, applies Porticus taxonomy, maps requirement relationships, and produces a structured report for rapid remediation planning.
The four outputs
1. Gaps - what the parent requires that your plan does not address
Requirements in the parent standard that have no corresponding item in your plan. These are the highest-confidence additions you need to make.
Example: Your HACCP plan does not include a documented procedure for allergen cross-contamination control, but BRC Issue 9 Clause 5.3 requires one.
2. Conflicts - where your plan contradicts the parent
Items in your plan that actively conflict with what the parent requires. Rated by severity so teams fix audit-fail risks first.
- • High - likely audit failure or legislative non-compliance
- • Medium - material conflict that needs supporting controls
- • Low - wording or structure conflict that creates audit friction
Example: Your RMP sets a CCP critical limit at 72C for 15 seconds, but the MPI specification for your product category requires 75C for 30 seconds.
3. Covered - where your plan matches the parent
Matched pairs between child and parent, with a coverage depth signal so teams can upgrade weak matches before audit.
- • Full - comprehensive alignment
- • Partial - some elements are covered, others missing
- • Nominal - requirement is mentioned but not substantively addressed
Example: Your plan requires pre-operational sanitation checks but does not specify verification frequency or recording format expected by Codex HACCP.
4. Exceeded - where your plan goes beyond the parent
Items in your plan that are stronger than the minimum. Useful for simplification decisions and for mapping to stricter parents later.
- • Identify where effort may be reduced safely
- • Spot evidence that already satisfies a second parent standard
- • Capture institutional practices above baseline
Example: Your HACCP plan requires daily environmental monitoring swabs while the minimum parent requirement is weekly.
Under the hood
Controlled taxonomy
Parent and child programmes are categorised by industry, domain, and functional area using the Porticus taxonomy, applied automatically after creation or onboarding.
Semantic matching, not keywords
The model aligns concepts like 'CCP' and 'critical control point', or 'cleaning verification' and 'sanitation validation', even when language differs.
Industry-aware
A dairy RMP alignment evaluates different expectations than a seafood RMP, even when checked against the same parent standard.
Jurisdiction-aware
When you align to NZ legislation, the analysis uses NZ-specific requirements rather than an assumed international baseline.
What you do with it
The alignment report is not a pass/fail badge. It is a prioritised action map for bringing your plan into alignment quickly and defensibly.
- 1. Fix high-severity conflicts first.
- 2. Close gaps next.
- 3. Promote nominal and partial coverage to full.
- 4. Decide to simplify, retain, or map exceeded controls.
Chaining alignments
Most plans must align with multiple parents. Run the alignment once per parent, then use Porticus programme mapping to see overlap clearly and write to the strictest requirement where it makes sense.
- • Food Act (NZ legislation)
- • Codex HACCP (international baseline)
- • BRC Issue 9 (customer requirement)
- • FSVP (US import requirement)
- • Retailer supplier code