Articles Tagged with ''SQF''

Proposed certification scheme updates, such as SQF Edition 10 and ISO 9001:2026, are shifting the focus from compliance to proactive, integrated food safety management. For quality assurance teams, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity: ensuring safe, compliant operations while influencing broader operational performance and workforce capability.

Marking the first time an SQF Code is introduced as a fully digital experience, the newly released Edition 10 is designed to strengthen audit credibility, reinforce food safety culture, and provide clearer signals around risk.

The Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI) has announced that SQF Edition 10 will be released in early March 2026, after a delay due to an extension in the GFSI benchmarking application time line.

By examining global standards such as HACCP, GFSI, and SQF, this article explores the gaps in current competency assessments and the risks posed by these gaps. It also provides actionable strategies to empower frontline leaders and quality assurance teams to improve where necessary.

Which comes first: generating standard operating procedures (SOPs) to drive improvements in quality and food safety behavior, or improving behaviors and then generating the appropriate SOPs? Does the SQF/GFSI process drive the first approach or the second? The answer to both questions is: yes.

The SQF Institute (SQFI) intends to gather industry input at the upcoming SQF Unites conference to inform the creation of a new SQF edition, and has shared its process and proposed timeline for developing SQF Edition 10.

SQFI recently collaborated with McDonald’s Corporation and NSF International to develop an audit addendum for McDonald’s produce suppliers that are SQF-certified for plant production.

Whether or not a country’s food businesses have largely achieved certification against food safety standards is the second most important predictor of instances of foodborne illness, according to a recent study.

The new SQF Fundamentals Verification Assessment is not classified as a standard SQF certification program, but it introduces an innovative approach to advance food safety capabilities.

Through a voluntary pilot program, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found four major third-party industry auditing standards for food safety to be in alignment with both the Preventive Controls for Human Foods Rule and the Produce Safety Rule, which are FDA regulations that were issued as part of Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) implementation.