Food safety solution designed for small and medium producers

The Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI), a third-party food safety and quality certification organization, has released their new Fundamentals Program as a food safety solution for small to medium size food producers. The SQF Fundamentals Program meets the technical requirements of the GFSI Global Markets Program, and was developed using the GFSI Global Markets Program Toolkit. 

Built as a step-wise approach, SQFI said the new program is designed to help small to medium size food producers integrate robust food safety standards into their existing practices, while creating a pathway to achieving globally accepted GFSI certification.

The Fundamentals Program is in two separate codes, manufacturing and primary production, and offers two approaches, basic and intermediate. While both programs include essential food safety requirements, Basic SQF Fundamentals focuses on developing good implementation tools for food safety, and Intermediate SQF Fundamentals builds on the requirements of the basic approach, including implementation tools and additional requirements regarding documentation.

Training and free resources are available at www.sqfi.com to help businesses learn and prepare for the program. Interested suppliers should begin the process of preparing their facilities now so they are ready for the January 1, 2019, implementation date.