An SQFI Select Site is a site that forgo the three-year certification cycle requirement and voluntarily elects to have annual
unannounced re-certification audits.
Transparency is the new black. Meaning, everyone wants to look good in it! However, being transparent about your food safety and quality processes isn’t something that is achieved overnight. If truth and candor were systematic in corporate practice and in the regulatory protocols, your buyer could make informed decisions about purchasing your product. It takes a strong food safety culture followed by effective training and engaging communication, to tell the story to your stakeholders that you’re committed to food safety.
By volunteering in the SQFI Select Site program, it communicates to your stakeholders that you are committed to food safety and the transparency of your processes.
It’s essential to be audit-ready. Hence the phrase: “Being audit ready all the time.” In fact, good food safety and quality practices should be adhered to and practiced on a consistent basis. Not just when your auditor or inspector is scheduled to arrive. We have created a program that takes suppliers to the next level of commitment and readiness, The SQFI Select Site program.
It’s important to start thinking about participating in the program. Sites may continue their annual announced recertification audit schedule or, new under SQF Edition 8, may choose to participate in an annual unannounced audit which, upon successful completion, will designate the facility an SQFI Select Site.
With Edition 10 audits arriving as early as Jan. 2, 2027, sites that start closing gaps today will walk into their audit with far more confidence than those scrambling at the end of 2026.
SQF Food Safety Code Edition 10 is now available, and it marks more than a routine update to the Code.
As we move toward the launch of SQF Edition 10 in early March, one message is clear. Food safety is no longer evaluated only through programs, procedures, and records.