In the last 15 years, food safety regulations have become stricter. As a result, food and beverage companies now invest in food safety training and HACCP/PCQI certification courses to meet their legal responsibility. This has resulted in safer supply chains. Due to the complicated nature of food safety regulations, registering for the right food safety…
If you keep informed on tech news, you know that digitized food safety systems have been very popular in the past few years. We have blogged on this topic before. Small businesses with paper based HACCP and SQF systems can easily commit to digital SQF implementations. To be successful, start with the right tools. Introducing…
If your food business or warehouse already follows good manufacturing and good distribution practices, now is the time to upgrade to an SQF certification which will enable you to export and to do business with large customers and retail chains. Safe Quality Food (SQF) is an accredited, internally-recognized food safety certification which is benchmarked to…
Pest Management is one of the critical HACCP pre-requisite programs (PRPs) which support site Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). A review of the last SQFI audit statistics shows that pest control requirements are at the top list of major non-conformities. A pest management program within a food storage or manufacturing facility involves monitoring pests including insects,…
The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) came into force on January 15, 2019. The food safety requirements rest on three pillars: Business Licensing, One-step forward/One-step back Traceability and Preventative Controls for food safety. The term “Preventive Controls” is now widely used, from the Codex HACCP guidelines (2020 publication) to the FDA Food Safety Modernization…
System verification is an important component of SQF. Third-party audit stats for SQF often show that this element is non-compliant. Verification confirms that the Food Safety Management System is functioning as planned. The purpose of verification is to demonstrate that the food safety plan is science-based and that CCP is effective at controlling the significant…
Ten years ago, HACCP training was a pre-requisite to working in the food industry and learning the Codex HACCP guidelines. This changed in 2011 when Barack Obama signed FSMA into law and Preventive Control Plans for Human Food became mandatory in the United States. In North America, food products under FDA oversight which are not…
It’s been over a year since the SQF code edition 9 was published and implemented. The SQF Professional update for 2022 Q2 provides some insights on food safety compliance for certified sites. Audit Findings SQFI reported that over 7,500 audits were conducted worldwide in 2021. The average audit score reached 94.30/100, a “G-good” audit score…
When maintaining a food safety management system, SQF practitioners are responsible for continuous improvement. They know that Corrective and Preventative Action (CAPA) and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) are quality management tools that drive continuous improvement and improve SQF Audit Scores. When deviations from SQF requirements are identified, a systematic process must be followed to determine…
On January 1, 2022, the 7th Edition of the Harmonized System (HS) nomenclature came into force. This update will affect Canadian importers and brokers who use the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS). HS codes may no longer be valid following HS structure updates by the World Customs Organization. If this is the case, a reject…