SQF certification consulting for a strong score and a site that is ready on any audit day.

What it is

What is SQF and what is it used for?

SQF, the Safe Quality Food Program, is a food safety certification programme owned by the SQF Institute (SQFI), a division of FMI – The Food Industry Association. Rather than one standard stretched across the whole food chain, SQF publishes a Food Safety Code for each part of it: primary plant and animal production, aquaculture, the manufacture of food, pet food, animal feed, animal products and dietary supplements, food sector packaging, and storage and distribution. Each code combines system elements, such as management commitment, the food safety plan and traceability, with good practice requirements written for its sector, and a site is audited and scored against the code that fits what it does. SQFI reports more than 14,000 certified sites and says SQF has been benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) since 2004.

The usual trigger is a buyer. Supplier approval forms ask for a certificate from a GFSI-benchmarked scheme, and SQF answers that request. The more useful question for the business is whether the food safety plan, the prerequisite controls and the people on every shift would stand up to an auditor who arrives unannounced; SQF's scoring turns the answer into a number that buyers read.

Current edition. SQFI has published Edition 10 of the SQF Code as digital codes on its website; the Food Manufacturing and Quality codes were updated on 1 September 2026 to reflect the new requirements. Edition 10 introduces risk-weighted audit scoring with core clauses, strengthens the expectations on food safety culture, change management and environmental monitoring, renumbers the requirements, and extends certificate validity from 75 to 80 days beyond the anniversary date. SQFI sets the date from which audits are conducted against Edition 10 and offers an Edition 10 Conversion Course; confirm with your certification body which edition your next audit will use. Sites starting now should build to Edition 10. SQF Edition 10: what changes and how to plan the move

Who it is for

Who needs SQF certification?

SQF certifies sites: the scope names the site, its food sector categories and the products covered, and multi-site certification has its own SQFI requirements. SQFI also publishes codes for food safety services and for agents and brokers. Food businesses come to Sterling for SQF from four situations:

• A buyer's supplier approval names SQF, or any GFSI-benchmarked scheme. We confirm at the start whether the buyer wants SQF specifically or any recognised scheme, which code and scope it expects, and whether it wants the Quality Code or annual unannounced audits.
• You are choosing between SQF, BRCGS, FSSC 22000 and IFS. Where the buyer leaves the choice to you, SQF suits a site that wants requirements written for its own sector, a numerical score to show customers and the option of certifying quality as well as safety.
• You are a smaller supplier starting from the basics. SQF Fundamentals, at Basic and Intermediate levels, introduces the SQF system for small and medium-sized businesses. It is not GFSI-benchmarked, so we use it as a first step and plan the route to the full Food Safety Code.
• You are certified, but the score is not where it should be. A score in the seventies brings a six-month surveillance audit, and under Edition 10 a score below 70 at recertification suspends the certificate. We rebuild the system around the findings, starting with the core clauses.

Business benefits

What SQF certification does for a food business

An SQF system pays for itself in production long before it shows in an audit report, so we begin where the auditor begins: the food safety plan against the process as it actually runs, the controls on the floor, and whether supervisors can explain why each one exists.

• A score buyers can readEvery Edition 10 audit ends with a number out of 100, with core clauses weighted more heavily. Scoring 80 or more keeps the site on a twelve-month cycle and gives buyers a simple measure of control.
• One certificate instead of many auditsSupplier approvals that ask for GFSI-benchmarked certification can accept SQF, so a single annual recertification can take the place of repeated customer audits.
• Requirements written for your sectorGrowers, feed mills, pet food plants, packaging converters and warehouses each work to a code written for what they do, not to a factory standard bent to fit.
• Fewer incidents and faster recoveryA validated food safety plan, an allergen risk assessment, environmental monitoring built on the site's own hazards, and a traceability and recall system that has been tested.
• Ready on the unannounced dayOne recertification audit in every three-year cycle arrives unannounced, and a site can choose that for every audit. A system that runs the same on every shift has nothing to prepare.
• Quality as well as safetyA site certified to its Food Safety Code can add the SQF Quality Code, which addresses quality threats and leads to a separate certificate, using the same arrangement of a primary and a substitute practitioner.

Choose a handful of measures that show whether the system works: repeat findings between audits, CCP deviations, allergen and labelling incidents, positive environmental results and how quickly corrective actions close.

Requirements

What are the main SQF requirements?

Each SQF Food Safety Code has two parts. Part A sets out how the Code is implemented and maintained and how certification works; Part B holds the auditable requirements: the system elements in Module 2 and a good practice module for the sector. The table follows the Edition 10 Food Manufacturing code; the other codes pair their system elements with good practice requirements for their own sector. It is a plain-language map, and your site is checked against the Code's own wording, requirement by requirement, during the programme.

Certification process

How do you get SQF certified?

Implement the Code and run it; then a certification body licensed by SQFI audits the site, scores it and decides. Sterling prepares your site and builds the system with your team. The audit, the score and the certificate belong to the certification body, and that independence is why a buyer accepts the certificate.

1. 01
   Choose the code and define the scope.The Food Safety Code that fits the site, the products and food sector categories to cover, whether to add the Quality Code, and registration in the SQFI Assessment Database before the audit.
2. 02
   Gap analysis: review the current site against the requirements.Part A and every applicable requirement of Module 2 and the good practice module, checked against the building, the process, the HACCP plan and the records; actions, owners, budget and dates agreed.
3. 03
   Implement, appoint and train.Prepare the primary and substitute practitioners, complete and validate the food safety plan, put good practice controls in place, train every role and run the records in daily production.
4. 04
   Audit internally and test the system.A full internal audit against the Code, a trace and recall exercise and a management review; findings raised by us first and closed with evidence before the certification audit is booked.
5. 05
   Complete the certification audit.A registered SQF auditor conducts it, with at least half of the audit time on site; corrective actions are approved by the auditor and closed in the SQFI Assessment Database within 40 calendar days, and the certification body decides.
6. 06
   Hold the score between audits.Recertification within 30 days either side of the anniversary, a surveillance audit at six months after a score of 70 to 79, and an unannounced recertification in every three-year cycle, or every year if you choose.

Test the route before the price. Ask which certification body will audit, confirm in SQFI's certification body directory that it holds an SQF licence, ask whether its auditors are registered for your food sector categories, and verify its ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation with the accreditation body. Offers that skip implementation end in a low score or a failed audit, with the fee already spent. How to choose a credible SQF provider · The certification buyer's checklist

Cost

How much does SQF certification cost?

An SQF price only means something once the site is understood. A dry-goods warehouse with a working HACCP plan is a short project; a ready-to-eat plant that has to design its environmental monitoring and repair its premises is a long one. A Sterling proposal prices the site in front of us, as one all-inclusive proposal with each component visible.

Timeline

How long does SQF certification take?

An SQF auditor samples records as well as the floor, so the system has to operate before it can be audited: the food safety plan validated and monitored, prerequisite programmes working, verification done on schedule, and enough production under the system for the records to show a pattern across shifts. That is why the realistic range is five to nine months: the shorter end for a site with a validated HACCP plan and sound premises, the longer end where the plan, the building or environmental monitoring has to be built.

If a buyer's deadline, a new contract or a season fixes the date, say so in the first conversation. We will tell you what is achievable and which decisions have to be made in the first month.

Challenges

Common SQF implementation challenges

SQF projects tend to stall for the same five reasons, and each has a practical answer.

Your engagement

What your SQF engagement includes

Everything a working SQF system and a prepared team need comes from one team under one all-inclusive proposal: the choice of code, the build, coaching for your practitioners, the software, the training and support through the audit.

• Code selection, gap analysis and implementation plan

  The right code and scope, every applicable requirement reviewed against the site, and works, actions, owners and dates agreed before anything starts.

• Food safety system development

  The food safety plan, system element procedures, good practice controls, and allergen and environmental monitoring programmes, built with your people on Sterling's template sets, with coaching for the primary and substitute practitioners.

• Effivity ISO & GRC software

  The SQF system runs in Effivity from the first week, included with the engagement at no additional cost.

• Training for everyone

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

• Internal audit, trace exercise and management review

  A full internal audit against the Code, a trace and recall exercise and a management review, conducted or facilitated as agreed, with findings closed before the auditor arrives.

• Certification readiness and support

  Help choosing a licensed certification body, SQFI registration, preparation of the practitioners, presence during the audit as agreed, and support until corrective actions are closed and the certificate is issued.

Certification decisions remain with the independent certification body.

How we deliver

How Sterling supports your SQF implementation

Every SQF engagement runs on Sterling OS™, our delivery operating system, in five phases with defined deliverables, decision owners and evidence. You decide how much of the work your own team carries; the method, the software and the accountability do not change.

1. 01
   Design™Guided implementation: your practitioner and HACCP team do the work with Sterling's structure, templates, workshops and coaching.
2. 02
   Drive™Fully managed consulting: Sterling consultants carry the agreed work alongside your practitioner, production leads and maintenance team.
3. 03
   Sustain™After certification: internal audits, trace and recall exercises, refresher and new-hire training, and readiness for recertification and the unannounced audit.
4. 04
   Automate™The SQF system in Effivity: food safety plan, monitoring, verification, allergen control, environmental monitoring, traceability, training, audits and corrective actions in one workspace.
5. 05
   Revise™The move to Edition 10, a better score, the Quality Code, annual unannounced audits, new products, new sites and additional codes.

The deliverables, decision owners and weekly working session are fixed in the first week, and progress is reviewed against them every week, so a missing validation study or an unrepaired drain shows up in month two rather than on audit day.

Often combined with

Standards organisations pair with SQF

• 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.
• FAMI-QS / GMP+FAMI-QS and GMP+ certification for feed businesses: how the two schemes differ, their requirement documents, the audit route 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.