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Compliance Standards > SQF

What is SQF Certification?

Safe Quality Food (SQF) is a globally recognized certification that ensures food safety and quality throughout the supply chain. The Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI) oversees this safety standard, which the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognizes as one of the benchmark schemes that meet strict requirements for food safety management systems. This recognition allows companies that implement SQF to comply with GFSI's global standards enhancing their credibility and improving their market access.

SQF certification consists of 13 industry-specific codes. These codes are designed to meet the requirements of the industry, customers, and regulatory bodies across all food supply chain sectors, from farms to retail stores.

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How Can FacilityOS Help with SQF Compliance? 

The FacilityOS modular platform supports organizations aiming for an SQF certification by streamlining facility processes helping to ensure compliance with strict food and beverage safety standards. Each FacilityOS module is built to turn SQF Code requirements into active, day-to-day practices with minimal hassle. By using these modules, companies can more easily comply with the SQF Code, reduce the risk of food safety incidents, and instill confidence during audits. The platform’s streamlined approach helps simplify compliance tasks, fostering a culture of food safety and quality.

 

Digital Reporting

Quickly and easily access digital logs to show the sign in and sign out times for each visitor, simplifying SQF compliance during regulatory audits. This meets SQF requirements for monitoring facility visitors and prevents unauthorized entry that could compromise food safety.

Hygiene Compliance

Include hygiene training in the visitor sign-in process and track training records to ensure visitors entering the facility have received the necessary training to meet SQF requirements that all visitors be trained before entering food handling areas.

Health & Safety Screening

Include pre-screening questions related to health and safety, ensuring individuals not meeting specific criteria (i.e.: sick in past x days or visited another facility in past x days) are denied entry. Enabling facilities to follow SQF expectations that visitors showing signs of illness be restricted, thereby protecting your products and processes from potential contamination at the door.

Traceable Visitor Records

Keep detailed records of everyone entering your facility, including suppliers, auditors, and other visitors, providing a transparent record of who was on-site and when. This supports management’s responsibility for food safety oversight and provides proof during SQF audits that visitor controls are effectively implemented.

Crisis Management Planning

Digitize your crisis management plan, ensuring you have a documented strategy for specific emergency evacuation events like recalls, fires, or floods. All required elements (e.g. designated safety officers, defined procedures, and contact lists) are in one place, satisfying SQF’s mandate for a written, prepared plan.

Regular Drills & Plan Reviews

Schedule and log emergency drills. This makes it easy to conduct the annual tests of your crisis plan that SQF requires and document improvements. This makes it easy to conduct the annual tests of your crisis plan that SQF requires, and to document improvements. Auditors will see evidence that you verify and update your emergency readiness on schedule, as part of continuous compliance.

Business Continuity Assurance

Be proactive about managing emergencies demonstrating senior management’s commitment to maintaining the food safety system during emergency events. It helps keep your response organized and effective, so you can maintain SQF compliance and keep delivering safe, quality food under any circumstances.

Documentation of Compliance

All contractor credentials, agreements, and compliance records are stored for easy reference in ContractorOS. Management can demonstrate due diligence in approving and  
monitoring contractors, showing an SQF auditor that you uphold food safety responsibilities even when work is performed by third parties.

Traceability of Shipments

Log outgoing shipment along with details about its contents creating an auditable trail from production to customer. This directly supports SQF’s traceability and recall requirements. Faster traceability means quicker, more effective recalls and compliance with SQF’s one-step-forward, one-step-back traceability rule.

Streamline SQF Compliance with Facility and Visitor Management

Request a demo to see how FacilityOS can assist your organization in effectively meeting SQF requirements. Book a Demo
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This webpage and its content are an interpretation of ITAR requirements and is not legal advice nor should it act as a replacement for having a legal team review the specific compliance needs of your organization.