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Compliance and Integrity

The Safe Quality Food’s Compliance and Integrity Program (CIP) measures the quality and integrity of SQF certificates, audits, SQF professionals, and licensed certification bodies. The SQF CIP, helps to ensure the consistent execution of the SQF program to meet stakeholder expectations. the CIP is used to identify areas for improvement to strengthen the SQF Program. There are two areas of focus for the CIP:  Monitoring Activities and Stakeholder feedback.

SQF has a series of normative documents that include: The SQF Fundamental Codes, The SQF Food Safety Codes, The SQF Quality Code, SQF Criteria, SQF Policies and Procedures, and Code Amendments. These documents are reviewed, revised, and re-issued as needed to remain current and address stakeholder’s expectations and are publicly available on sqfi.com or upon request.

At SQFI, we welcome and appreciate your input. The feedback and comments we receive about the SQF licensed certification bodies, SQF certified sites auditors, consultants, training centers and trainers are used continuously to improve our program. There are several ways to provide feedback to the SQF Program, as listed below.

Monitoring Activities

SQF Certificate Suspension and Withdrawal (Part A, 4.6, 4.74.8, 4.9)
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SQF sites who have been withdrawn cannot re-enter the SQF program for a 12-month period. To view a list of sites that have been withdrawn in the past 12 months and for more information regarding our withdrawn policy click here.

Each withdrawn certificate will be posted for a twelve-month period and include the site name, city, state, and country along with the month and year of the withdrawal.  The list will be updated monthly.

Click here to view Withdrawn Certificates

For more information or clarification regarding the changes to this requirement please contact SQFI at info@sqfi.com.

Tracking SQF Certified Site
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SQFI provides a database of all SQF certified sites that hold a current SQF certificate. Any site that is suspended or withdrawn from the program, or a site that fails to renew their registration with SQFI, will be removed from this listing.

Click here to search for an SQF certified site.
Food Safety Incident and Product Recall Tracking
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The SQF certified site is required to notify both SQFI and the designated certification body, within twenty-four (24) hours, in writing at foodsafetycrisis@sqfi.com when there is a food safety event at the facility that requires public notification, such as a Class I or Class II recall (US), or the receipt of a regulatory warning letter. The CIP tracks all recalls for SQF and non-SQF certified sites and provides an annual summary to SQF stakeholders outlining the total number and top categories of those recalls.

Certification Body Monitoring and Report
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The SQF licensed certification bodies (CBs) are monitored by SQFI to ensure compliance with the SQF Code, CB Criteria and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 17065. Accreditation assessment results are reviewed and supplier surveys are issued to identify the strengths and opportunities for improvement. SQFI provides each CB with a biannual report that summarizes the feedback and results of the CB activity. The report provides a summary of audit information, auditor performance, SQF certified site recalls, and rating and scores from the SQF Supplier Survey.

SQF Professional Annual Update - April 2019

Stakeholder Feedback

SQF Certified Supplier Survey
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This survey is designed for the SQF certified supplier who has recently completed an SQF audit and wants to provide feedback on the supplier audit experience and the performance of the SQF auditor.

Click here to Take our Supplier Survey.
Informal Feedback and Complaints
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All comments or feedback concerning a particular area of the SQF Program, including SQF licensed certification bodies, SQF licensed training centers, SQF registered auditors, SQF registered consultants and/or SQF certified site should be submitted to SQFI by email.

Please send an email to compliance@sqfi.com with any feedback, comments or concerns. We also welcome feedback regarding any webinars or events we have.

Submit a Formal Complaint
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Formal complaints will be handled by the SQF compliance committee as outlined in the SQF complaint procedure. Related personnel will be contacted based on the nature of the complaint.

THE PROCESS FOR COMPLAINTS IS AS FOLLOWS:

  1. Complaints can be directed to any member of the SQFI staff via phone or email (compliance @sqfi.com).
  2. Once all necessary information is received, the complaint is processed with the SQFI compliance manager.
  3. Complaint is directed to the individual/certification body to provide an opportunity to resolve.
  4. The final result of the complaint is communicated in writing to all parties involved and the case is closed.

SQFI-009 Complaint Procedure is available upon request by emailing compliance@sqfi.com.