Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are instructions used to facilitate how employees perform complex tasks routinely. SOPs allow the task, when performed as stated in the SOPs, to deliver consistent quality uniformly and, by doing so, reduce products that do not conform to company policies or quality standards and help comply with relevant regulatory requirements. Almost any food safety training program will refer to sanitation processes as a prerequisite for food production and Sanitation SOPs (SSOPs) as essential to those activities. This makes good SSOPs a foundational element of a competent food safety program.