From Leaf to Cup: How SQF Certification Strengthens Confidence in the Tea Supply Chain

Oct 6, 2025

Achieving SQF certification enhances food safety and consumer trust in the tea supply chain by embedding rigorous standards throughout sourcing, production, and packaging. This certification fosters accountability and continuous improvement and aligns operations with internationally recognized benchmarks. 

Maintaining consistent food safety standards is complex in global categories like tea, where raw materials are sourced from multiple regions and transformed through blending, packaging, and distribution.

In a recent blog post, The Tea Spot shared how achieving SQF certification strengthens its mission to deliver safe, high-quality teas. They emphasized that certification is not just about compliance, but about building consumer confidence in every cup. The process required aligning operations with rigorous food safety standards, from sourcing ingredients to packaging finished products. They highlighted the role of SQF in fostering accountability, training, and continuous improvement across their team. Certification also helps to assure retail partners that their products meet internationally recognized benchmarks. Ultimately, SQF has become part of their company culture, reinforcing trust at every stage of their supply chain. 

The Tea Spot’s achievement of SQF Certification illustrates how applying the rigor of the SQF Food Safety Code for Manufacturing, builds resilience across supply chains and trust with consumers.

SQF Certification in Practice

The SQF Program is benchmarked to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and designed to provide independent verification that food safety management systems are effectively implemented. For The Tea Spot, certification meant embedding SQF requirements into daily operations, from supplier approval and ingredient traceability to employee training and facility management. 

As outlined in the SQF Code, implementing SQF goes beyond preparing for an audit. It requires a structured approach that: 

  • Ensures suppliers meet documented specifications 

  • Verifies traceability from raw ingredient through finished product. 

  • Embeds food safety culture into employee training and decision-making. 

Audit Outcomes and Continuous Improvement

SQF certification has positioned The Teas Spot to approach food safety as a cycle of continuous improvement. As highlighted in the SQF Code guidance document for Internal Audits & Inspections, internal checks and corrective actions are as critical as the certification itself, ensuring that companies stay audit-ready and resilient in the face of change. You can also take a look at our Internal Audit Plan tip sheet for more support.

Key Lessons for Industry

  • Supplier Collaboration: SQF requirements for supplier approval and performance monitoring help brands safeguard ingredient integrity. 

  • Audit Preparedness as Daily Discipline: Treating SQF as a management tool, not a once-a-year event, elevates both operational consistency and consumer trust. 

  • SQF Fundamentals Program – Manufacturing: This Code meets the needs of retailers and buyers with small to medium enterprises, providing the essential requirements for building a robust food safety management system. Fundamentals programs at SQFI are available in both basic and intermediate levels to suit a variety of needs. Download our free checklists and Codes here. 

Broader Implications

SQF certification is not a marketing label, it’s a robust, internationally recognized system that reassures trading partners, regulators, and consumers alike. For industries with diverse sourcing, like tea, certification supports transparent supply chain management and demonstrates a commitment to excellence that extends beyond compliance. 

Conclusion

The Tea Spot’s journey underscores how SQF certification can be applied across specialty categories to safeguard food safety and protect brand reputation. By aligning with the requirements in the SQF Food Safety Code and leveraging the associated SQF guidance documents, certified sites can build systems that deliver confidence not only to their customers but to the broader food industry.

SQF certification plays a crucial role in enhancing food safety and consumer confidence in the tea supply chain by embedding rigorous standards throughout sourcing, production, and packaging processes. It fosters accountability and continuous improvement and aligns operations with internationally recognized food safety benchmarks.

  • Certification Strengthens Trust: SQF certification builds consumer confidence and reinforces trust at every stage of the supply chain by embedding a culture of food safety and accountability. 

  • Comprehensive Implementation: SQF requires integrating supplier approval, ingredient traceability, employee training, and facility management into daily operations to ensure food safety management systems are effectively applied.

  • Continuous Improvement Through Audits: Internal audits and corrective actions are essential components of SQF certification, promoting resilience and ongoing readiness beyond just passing certification audits.

  • Industry Lessons and Broader Impact: SQF emphasizes supplier collaboration, daily audit preparedness, and employee engagement through training programs, offering scalable food safety solutions that reassure trading partners and consumers in globally sourced products like tea. 

 

Online Courses for Your SQF Journey

These seven self-paced courses, built by SQF Code creators, offer practical tips based on audit data to help you continuously improve your SQF system and help sites understand fundamental food safety program topics, SQF Code methodology, and requirements to achieve SQF certification. Find the course that works best for you and get started today. 

 

 

If your company needs assistance, visit our website to discover the SQF difference. If you need more support on your SQF journey, send an email to Jonathan Lackie, our North American business development manager or schedule a call.

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