FAMI-QS and GMP+ certification for feed your customers can trust in every batch.

What it is

What are FAMI-QS and GMP+ and what are they used for?

FAMI-QS and GMP+ are two private certification schemes for feed safety. Both exist for the same reason: animal feed enters the food chain, so a contaminated ingredient or a mixed-up load can travel from a feed mill to livestock and on to meat, milk and eggs. Each scheme gives feed businesses a defined set of requirements, and gives their customers an independent audit result instead of a questionnaire.

FAMI-QS, "The Quality and Safety System for Specialty Feed Ingredients", is run from Brussels and focuses on specialty feed ingredients. It holds a liaison with the ISO subcommittee on food safety management systems. GMP+ International owns the GMP+ Feed Certification scheme, which covers a wider span of the feed chain: production, trade, storage and transport. It has a Feed Safety Assurance module and a separate Feed Responsibility Assurance module.

These schemes are not pharmaceutical good manufacturing practice. The "GMP" in GMP+ refers to feed; medicines manufacturers should see our GMP page instead.

Current versions. FAMI-QS operates Certification System Version 9, with its Rules for Operators dated 20 December 2024. GMP+ operates the GMP+ FC scheme 2020, which replaced the 2010 generation; individual documents are reissued as the scheme develops, and several carry a version dated 2 March 2026. Always confirm which document versions apply on the scheme owner's website before your audit is planned.

Who it is for

Who needs FAMI-QS or GMP+ certification?

The choice of scheme usually follows the customer. Specialty ingredient suppliers are most often asked for FAMI-QS; compound feed producers, traders and logistics firms supplying the feed chain are most often asked for GMP+. Businesses come to Sterling from four directions:

• A feed customer makes it a supplier condition. Compound feed producers and integrators often accept only certified suppliers. Confirm which scheme, which scope and which activities the customer expects before any work starts.
• A tender or distribution agreement names the scheme. Export contracts and distributor onboarding increasingly cite a feed safety certificate. The scope on the certificate must match the products and services you will actually deliver.
• A regulator or authority tightens feed hygiene checks. Certification does not replace legal registration or inspection, but a working feed safety system makes both easier to face.
• A group company or parent needs one approach. Sites in different countries, or a new acquisition, need a common feed safety system and a common audit story.

Requirements

What are the main FAMI-QS and GMP+ requirements?

Each scheme publishes its requirements as a set of documents on the owner's website, rather than as a single standard. The map below names the document families at title level. Your system is checked against the exact versions in force on the day of the audit.

• FAMI-QS Rules for Operators: the Version 9 rules that a certified specialty feed ingredient business must follow.
• FAMI-QS feed fraud module: a dedicated module addressing the risk of fraud in feed ingredients.
• FAMI-QS scheme documents: audit guidance and the list of standards the scheme recognises, published alongside the rules.
• GMP+ R1.0 Feed Safety Management Systems Requirements: the core management system requirements for GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance.
• GMP+ TS1.1 Prerequisite programme: the basic hygiene and operating conditions a feed business must have in place.
• GMP+ TS1.2 Purchase: requirements for buying feed materials and services from assured sources.
• GMP+ transport specifications: technical specifications for moving feed, including inland waterway and short sea shipping.
• GMP+ Feed Responsibility Assurance: a separate module for responsibility topics, certified on its own.
• GMP+ framework and support documents: the scheme introduction, the definition list and guidance such as HACCP for transport and building traceability systems.

Certification process

How do you get FAMI-QS or GMP+ certified?

The system comes first and the audit second. Sterling prepares your business; a certification body listed by the scheme owner audits it and takes the certification decision. Keeping those roles apart is what gives the certificate its value to your customers.

1. 01
   Choose the scheme and define the scope.Match the customer requirement to FAMI-QS, GMP+ FSA, GMP+ FRA or a combination, and list products, activities and sites.
2. 02
   Gap analysis: compare current practice with the scheme documents.Identify what is missing, keep what works, and agree actions, owners, dates and resources.
3. 03
   Build and run the feed safety system.Put prerequisites, hazard analysis, supplier control and traceability into daily work, train the people involved and keep the records.
4. 04
   Test the system before the auditor does.Internal audit, a traceability exercise and management review; we raise findings first and see them closed with evidence.
5. 05
   Complete the certification body's audit.Apply to a listed certification body, host its audit under the scheme's rules, close any findings and await its decision.

Check the route before you sign. Confirm that the certification body appears on the scheme owner's own list for the scope you need, and once the certificate is issued, confirm it directly with the scheme owner. Treat any offer of a certificate without an on-site audit as a warning sign.

Cost

How much does FAMI-QS or GMP+ certification cost?

There is no all-inclusive proposal because the work depends on your products, activities and starting point. A single-site trader with established hygiene controls is a very different project from a multi-site ingredient manufacturer starting from scratch. We fix the fee once the scope is known.

Timeline

How long does FAMI-QS or GMP+ certification take?

Our estimate for most feed businesses is four to eight months. The short end suits a site with sound hygiene and an existing HACCP plan; the long end applies where supplier control, traceability or the site itself needs work. The system must also run long enough to produce the records the auditor will sample.

If a customer has set a date, tell us at the start and we will show you what is realistic and which decisions must come early.

Your engagement

What your FAMI-QS or GMP+ engagement includes

Every engagement runs on Sterling OS™. You choose one support level: Design™, where we guide and your team builds, or Drive™, where we manage the work with your people. Automate™ is Effivity, carrying the system in daily use, and Sustain™ keeps it current after certification. Sterling does not certify; the listed certification body audits and decides.

• Scheme choice, scope and gap analysis

  A written scope and action plan, with owners and dates, before implementation begins.

• Feed safety system and documents

  Prerequisites, hazard analysis, supplier control and traceability, written with your own teams.

• Effivity ISO & GRC software

  Your feed safety records run in Effivity, included with the engagement at no additional cost.

• Training for everyone

  Internal auditor training for your audit team, as applicable to your standard, and preferential Sterling Academy access, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.

• Internal audit and management review

  Carried out or facilitated as agreed, with findings closed before the certification audit.

• Audit readiness and support

  Preparation for the certification body's audit and support until the decision is made.

Certification decisions remain with the certification body listed by the scheme owner.

Often combined with

Standards organisations pair with FAMI-QS / GMP+

• BRCGS Food SafetyBRCGS Food Safety certification consulting for food manufacturers: HACCP plan, site standards and controls ready for a graded audit, announced or unannounced.
• BRCGS Storage and Distribution · Agents and BrokersBRCGS Storage and Distribution certification and Agents and Brokers: Issue 4 and Issue 3 requirements, scopes, audits and cost factors, with Sterling's support.
• FairtradeFairtrade certification and requirements: which Fairtrade International standards apply, FLOCERT's audit, cost and timing, and how Sterling prepares you.
• FDA FSMA (US)FDA FSMA compliance for food facilities, importers, farms and carriers: preventive controls, FSVP, food traceability and records ready for FDA inspection.
• FSSC 22000FSSC 22000 certification consulting for GFSI-recognised food safety: ISO 22000, sector PRPs and FSSC requirements, ready for a licensed body's audit.
• GLOBALG.A.P.GLOBALG.A.P.