The following is from the SQF website:
Technical Update: Revising the SQF Code for a Changing Marketplace
September 28, 2011 by SQFI
In an ever-evolving food safety culture, the SQF Institute has prided itself on quickly adapting to changes in the food safety and certification marketplace. This year, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) released version 6 of its Guidance Document, which required all existing GFSI-recognized schemes to resubmit their code for benchmarking by the end of this year.
SQF Institute took this opportunity to review and revise the SQF codes to not only meet the requirements of the GFSI Guidance Document, but also to remove duplication as well as clarify areas of concern or ambiguity.
As a result, SQF Institute combined both the SQF 1000 and SQF 2000 codes to create one streamlined code that includes modules for all industry scopes outlined in GFSI’s latest Guidance Document – creating one standard for the global supply chain.
“The revised version of the SQF Code will provide SQF stakeholders with a farm-to-fork solution to food safety,” said LeAnn Chuboff, Senior Technical Director at the SQF Institute. “Suppliers along the supply chain will be able to demonstrate their commitment to establishing a food safety culture.”
Other revisions include removing the scoring for Opportunities for Improvement (OIPs) and revising the auditor and certification body criteria to strengthen the auditor competency training and compliance activities.
These recommended revisions were provided to stakeholders and the Technical Advisory Council (TAC) for review in July, and the revised SQF Code was submitted in September. Benchmarking is expected from GFSI by January 2012.
Implementation of the new SQF Code will begin in January 2012 with the development of supporting materials for training and technical documents, including new guidance documents. The goal will be to have new and existing sites certified under the new SQF Code by July 2012.
The SQF Institute will continue to update stakeholders on the implementation process throughout the year. Get the latest information on these changes by visiting our website or our Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts. For further questions, please email info@sqfi.com.