SQF—Safe Quality Food— is a program initiated by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). It works on the vision ‘one world; one standard’ to meet the food safety management requirements of suppliers and buyers across the globe. SQF is owned and regulated by the Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI), a division of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). SQF certification is a program initiated to reduce the need for multiple food safety audits.
Getting SQF Certified enables your organization to comply with international and domestic food safety regulations providing the suppliers with an assurance that food has been produced, and handled according to the highest viable standards.
All Audits are to be administered under the recent revision to Edition 8 compliant SQF Food Safety Management System of the SQF Code as of January 1, 2018.
The SQF certification Program works with Three Levels of Certification:
Considered for simple food safety practices especially for low-risk products. This layer set a foundation on companies to safely produce and manufacture their products.
Considered for high-risk products, this layer is considered for suppliers to conduct a food safety risk assessment of the product using the HACCP method.
This is the comprehensive level of certification the SQF has to present. This level can only be achieved by first complying with the first two levels of certification.