What is the SQF (Safe Quality Food) program?

The SQF program

The Safe Quality Food (SQF) program is a rigorous and reliable food safety and quality program recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).

What is SQF?

Safe Quality Food, SQF, is a food safety certification program developed and managed by the SQF Institute to manage food safety risks. Once your food safety management system is in place, it is audited and certified by an external certification body.

Requirements

Food safety certification requirements provide a rigorous system for managing food safety risks and providing safe products for use by companies in the food industry.

It is a food safety certification recognized by the GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative). This allows your customers to have confidence in your food safety program and know that you have a reliable food safety system.

Compliance and integrity

Safe Quality Food’s Compliance and Integrity Program (CIP) measures the quality and integrity of SQF certifications, audits, SQF professionals and licensed certification bodies. The SQF CIP helps ensure consistent implementation of the SQF program and meets stakeholder expectations. The CIP is used to identify opportunities for improvement to strengthen the SQF program. The Compliance and Integrity Program focuses on two areas: Monitoring activities and stakeholder feedback.

SQF has a number of normative documents including: the SQF Fundamentals, SQF Food Safety Codes, SQF Quality Code, SQF Criteria, SQF Policies and Procedures, and Code Amendments. These documents are reviewed, revised and reissued as needed to remain current and meet stakeholder expectations. They are publicly available on sqfi.com or upon request.

At SQF, your input is welcome and valued. The feedback and comments they receive on SQF Accredited Certification Bodies, SQF Certified Operational Examiners, consultants, training centers and instructors are continually used to improve our program. There are several ways to provide feedback to the SQF program, which are listed below.