Food safety is a critical component of a successful supplier/buyer trading partnership, and SQFI has created an approach for small to medium size food producers who don’t have a robust food safety program in place that satisfies buyers and retailer’s concerns.
Today, SQFI released their Fundamentals Program for Food Manufacturing and the Fundamentals Program for Primary Producers. Each program has both basic and intermediate levels and provides a step-by-step approach to improve food safety management. The SQF Fundamentals Program helps to facilitate retailer acceptance of entrepreneurs, providing food safety security and acceptance along the supply chain.
Our new approach will be beneficial to up-and-coming businesses by providing the following:
Some advantages of using the new SQF Fundamentals Program are:
To further help the emerging business succeed with our program, SQFI has developed training tools and capacity building strategies, because we know these business owners will need support and assistance along the way. The training tools we’ve created are key resources to the business because they often don’t have the means to have a full time dedicated food safety professional on staff. Because we know learning about the program and adapting this into a business does not happen overnight, SQFI has allowed for about a 6th month implementation of this program and audits will be able to begin on January 1, 2019.
SQFI has established a three-pronged approach to expertly address the learning and access needs for varying audiences:
Join the SQFI team at noon eastern on July 24th, 2018 for a free webinar that will explain the New SQF Fundamentals Program and Partnering the Global Markets Programme and the SQF Code. Register now at www.sqfi.com/events-training. For more information about the Fundamentals Program and to download a free copy of the code, visit our Fundamentals page.
Qiang Zheng is the food safety and quality assurance manager at Melville Candy Company. He was an early adopter of the Certified SQF Practitioner credential when it launched late in 2024.
In mid to late August 2025, the food safety world will reach a major milestone with the release of SQF Edition 10, a comprehensive update designed to elevate food safety practices across the industry.
SQF Code Edition 10 represents a critical step forward in ensuring rigorous yet practical food safety management across the supply chain.