Meat, Poultry & Seafood Processing worked example

Shelf-Life Risk with severity of shelf life failure of 18 1-10: a worked example

What does the result look like when severity of shelf life failure reaches 18 1-10? The full calculation is worked below with real intermediate numbers. Use it during HACCP team reviews, risk assessments for new products, or when prioritizing which shelf life failure modes need additional controls or monitoring.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Severity of shelf life failure: 18 1-10 (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 7)
  • Occurrence likelihood: 4 1-10 (unchanged)
  • Detection capability: 5 1-10 (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Shelf life risk priority number (RPN) = severity x occurrence x detection) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 9.85 score for shelf life risk priority number (rpn), the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 18 score for severity of shelf life failure.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 4 score for occurrence likelihood.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 5 score for detection capability score.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where severity of shelf life failure sits at 7 1-10 and the headline result is 5.45 score, this scenario comes in 80.73% above the baseline at 9.85 score.
  • A figure at this level is achievable when severity of shelf life failure is genuinely sustained, not just peaked for a shift. RPN is ordinal, not a probability; equal scores can represent very different real risks, so a high severity should be weighted heavily even when the product of the three numbers looks moderate.

Results at a glance

  • Shelf life risk priority number (RPN): 9.85 score (headline result)
  • Severity of shelf life failure: 18 score
  • Occurrence likelihood: 4 score
  • Detection capability score: 5 score

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Shelf-Life Risk calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.