This comprehensive program is designed to introduce you to the fundamental principles of workplace safety and food safety and ensure you're equipped with the knowledge and skills to maintain a safe and hygienic work environment. Whether you're a new employee or looking to refresh your knowledge, this learning plan will empower you to contribute to our commitment to workplace safety and food safety.

LANGUAGES: ENGLISH, SPANISH

Courses Included in this Learning Plan:

Environmental Monitoring Program

Food Defense Basics

Food Fraud

Handwashing

Introduction to Food Allergens

Introduction to Food Safety Systems

Introduction to FSMA Preventive Controls

Introduction to GFSI

Introduction to HACCP

Personal Hygiene

Preventing Contamination

Preventing Foodborne Illness

Sanitary Personal Protective Equipment

This SQF Edition 9 Management Commitment Assessment is a comprehensive evaluation that focuses on the commitment and involvement of top-level management in implementing and maintaining the SQF Food Safety Management System. This assessment is aligned with the requirements set forth in the SQF Code, Edition 9, which emphasizes the critical role of leadership in ensuring food safety, quality, and compliance within an organization.

The SQF Edition 9 Assessment for Document Control evaluates how well an organization manages and maintains documents and records per the SQF Code.

This SQF Edition 9 Assessment evaluates adherence to standards in managing specifications, formulations, production processes, and supplier approval for food safety.

This assessment evaluates the requirements for establishing and maintaining a Food Safety Plan under SQF Edition 9 for Food Manufacturing, focusing on compliance with the Codex Alimentarius Commission HACCP guidelines. It mandates comprehensive documentation and implementation of safety measures at each production stage, hazard analysis, identification and management of critical control points (CCPs), and regular monitoring and verification to ensure ongoing compliance. Additionally, it outlines protocols for product release, environmental monitoring, and handling non-conforming products, emphasizing a proactive approach to managing food safety risks and ensuring product integrity and safety throughout the manufacturing process.

This assessment evaluates the effectiveness the SQF System Verification through documented and implemented methods, responsibilities, and criteria. This includes validating Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), annually reviewing critical food safety limits, and assessing changes to maintain control effectiveness. Verification activities must be scheduled, documented, and performed by authorized personnel, ensuring GMPs, critical control points, and food safety controls meet legal standards. Corrective and preventative actions, including root cause analysis and resolution of non-compliance, must be documented and implemented. Internal audits, conducted at least annually, verify SQF System effectiveness, with trained staff recording compliance evidence, undertaking corrective actions, and maintaining records of all related activities and inspections.

This assessment on product traceability and crisis management ensures compliance with SQF standards. The methods and responsibilities for identifying raw materials, ingredients, packaging, work-in-progress, process inputs, and finished products must be documented and implemented. This includes product start-up, changeover, and label reconciliation to ensure correct labeling. Product traceability procedures must ensure finished products are traceable one step forward and one step back, with annual reviews for effectiveness. Product withdrawal and recall methods must identify responsible parties, management procedures, communication plans, and annual testing to ensure system effectiveness. A crisis management plan must outline responses to potential dangers, ensure product safety is not compromised, and be reviewed and tested annually. Records of all procedures, reviews, and corrective actions must be maintained.

This assessment for SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Food Defense and Food Fraud evaluates the implementation and maintenance of robust plans to prevent deliberate acts of sabotage and fraudulent activities. The Food Defense Plan must identify potential sabotage threats, with detailed documentation covering methods to prevent adulteration, secure access control, protect sensitive areas, and ensure the secure receipt and storage of materials. The Food Fraud section requires identifying vulnerabilities to raw material substitution, product mislabeling, dilution, or counterfeiting. A mitigation plan must be developed and implemented, specifying control methods for identified vulnerabilities.

The assessment for SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Allergen Management ensures that all procedures to control allergens and prevent contamination are documented and implemented. The allergen management program includes conducting a risk analysis of raw materials, ingredients, and processing aids, assessing workplace-related allergens, maintaining a list of applicable allergens, and ensuring staff access to this list. The program also involves incorporating allergen control into the food safety plan and implementing management plans for identified allergens.

This assessment for SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Training ensures that all organizational personnel have the required competencies to carry out functions affecting product safety, legality, and quality. The responsibility for establishing and implementing training needs must be defined and documented. A documented training program outlines the necessary competencies for specific duties and the training methods for tasks related to HACCP, monitoring CCPs, personal hygiene, Good Manufacturing Practices, sampling and testing methods, environmental monitoring, allergen management, food defense, and food fraud. This program includes provisions for identifying and implementing refresher training needs. Training materials and procedures must be provided in languages understood by staff. Training records must be maintained and include participant names, skills descriptions, descriptions of the training provided, dates completed, trainers or training providers, and verification of trainee competency.

This assessment on SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Site Location and Premises ensures compliance with standards for the construction, maintenance, and operation of food production facilities to maintain product safety and quality.

This assessment on SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Site Operation ensures maintenance, calibration, pest prevention, and cleaning practices comply with safety and regulatory standards. It verifies that maintenance and repairs are documented, planned, and conducted without contaminating products. Contractors follow hygiene protocols, and equipment calibration meets national standards. The audit checks the pest prevention program's effectiveness and ensures proper use and storage of pest control chemicals. It also reviews cleaning and sanitation procedures, including the use of appropriate detergents and sanitizers, and validates cleaning-in-place systems. Pre-operational inspections are conducted to confirm cleanliness before production, and all activities are thoroughly documented.

This assessment on SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Personnel Hygiene and Welfare ensures that measures are in place to maintain high standards of hygiene and safety among staff and visitors, preventing contamination risks to food products. This includes ensuring that personnel with infectious diseases or exposed cuts do not handle food, and measures are in place to prevent contamination from bodily fluids. Handwashing protocols are enforced, with properly equipped handwashing stations provided. The audit checks that clothing and personal effects policies protect against contamination, with clean and suitable protective clothing provided and maintained. Jewelry restrictions are enforced, and visitors are trained in food safety procedures or escorted in processing areas. Staff amenities, including change rooms, toilets, and break rooms, must meet cleanliness and functionality standards, with appropriate facilities provided for staff hygiene.

This assessment for SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Personnel Processing Practices ensures that all personnel engaged in food handling, preparation, or processing operations adhere to practices that prevent damage or contamination of products and materials. This includes compliance with processing practices such as entering processing areas only through designated personnel access doors, keeping doors closed, storing packaging, products, and ingredients in appropriate containers off the floor, containing waste in designated bins, and storing wash down and compressed air hoses on racks.

The assessment for SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Water, Ice, and Air Supply ensures that safe and adequate supplies are maintained to prevent contamination and ensure product safety. It verifies potable water is sourced from clean origins with contingency plans for contamination, hot and cold water are available for cleaning, and non-potable water is controlled to prevent cross-contamination. On-site water storage is assessed for adequate design and cleanliness. Water treatment methods and equipment are monitored, with water tested for potability and compliance with quality standards for various uses. Ice supply is checked for compliance, sourcing from approved suppliers, and proper storage to minimize contamination. Compressed air and other gases that contact food are reviewed for cleanliness and safety, with systems maintained and monitored regularly for quality and food safety hazards.

This assessment for SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Receipt, Storage, and Transport ensures effective practices for receiving, storing, and transporting goods to maintain food safety and product integrity. The audit verifies that the site has documented and implemented a storage plan for raw materials, ingredients, packaging, equipment, and chemicals, preventing cross-contamination and ensuring proper stock rotation and shelf-life management. It checks that temporary storage conditions undergo risk analysis and that records verify control measures' effectiveness. Cold storage facilities are assessed for operational performance, temperature monitoring, and proper discharge controls. Dry storage areas are evaluated for construction and cleanliness to prevent contamination and pest harborage. The storage of hazardous chemicals is scrutinized for proper labeling, segregation, and compliance with safety regulations. Loading, transport, and unloading practices are reviewed to ensure conditions prevent cross-contamination and maintain product integrity, with refrigerated units monitored for consistent temperature control. Overall, the audit ensures comprehensive procedures are in place for safe and hygienic handling, storage, and transportation of goods.

This assessment for SQF Edition 9: Food Manufacturing – Separation of Functions ensures that high-risk processes, such as the handling of food after a “kill” step or “food safety intervention,” are conducted under controlled conditions to prevent cross-contamination. This includes segregating sensitive areas, testing ambient air in high-risk areas annually, and ensuring only dedicated staff service these areas. Staff working in high-risk areas must change into clean clothing and follow strict hygiene practices. Product transfer points are designed to minimize cross-contamination. Thawing of food is monitored to prevent deterioration or contamination, with proper disposal of used packaging. Measures to control foreign matter contamination are documented and implemented, with inspections to maintain equipment and prevent hazards from glass, wood, and loose metal objects. Foreign object detection systems, such as metal detectors, are regularly monitored, calibrated, and verified for effectiveness, with records maintained for inspections and any corrective actions taken.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Management Commitment involves a comprehensive review of the senior site management's policies and procedures to ensure a robust quality management system. This includes establishing and maintaining a quality management system, complying with customer, regulatory, and company quality requirements, setting measurable quality objectives, and fostering continuous improvement. The audit verifies that quality objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) are communicated to all staff, adequate resources are provided, and all staff are aware of their quality responsibilities. It ensures that personnel performing key processes are competent and that their job descriptions are documented. The audit also evaluates the role of the SQF quality practitioner in overseeing the quality system and ensures that a quality communication program is in place. Additionally, it assesses the process for trending quality performance and the effectiveness of the management review process. The complaint management process is examined to ensure proper documentation, investigation, and resolution of quality complaints, with trends included in performance measures. Records of all reviews, changes, and actions taken to improve the quality system are maintained and evaluated.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Document Control and Records ensures that all electronic and/or hard copy documentation outlining the methods and procedures to meet the SQF Quality Code requirements is current, maintained, and accessible to staff. This includes a summary of the organization’s quality policies, the policy statement and site organization chart, a list of products covered under the scope of certification, finished product specifications meeting customer and corporate quality requirements, and descriptions of process control methods to reduce process variation.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Specifications, Formulations, Realization, and Supplier Approval involves evaluating the methods for designing, developing, and converting product concepts to commercial realization, ensuring processes can consistently supply products that meet customer specifications through process capability analysis. It includes validating product formulation, manufacturing processes, and product quality requirements via facility trials and testing. Shelf life trials for new products or changes in materials, ingredients, or equipment are conducted to validate packaging, handling, storage, and customer-use requirements. Specifications for all raw materials, packaging, finished products, and services must be documented, current, and verified upon receipt to meet quality parameters. Customer product specifications and delivery requirements should be communicated within the site, and contract service specifications must include a full description and training requirements. Agreements with contract manufacturers must ensure compliance with quality requirements, including annual audits or equivalent certifications. The approved supplier program mandates that raw materials, ingredients, packaging, processing aids, and services come from approved suppliers capable of meeting quality specifications, with evaluations based on controlled specifications, consistent supply processes, evidence of meeting agreed specifications, and complaint management systems. Supplier audits should be conducted by knowledgeable and trained individuals, with all materials inspected upon receipt for compliance.

This assessment of the SQF Edition 9: Quality – Food Quality System involves ensuring that the methods and responsibilities for managing customer requirements and consumer expectations are well-documented and implemented. This includes a review and approval process for new or updated customer requirements, a process for collecting and analyzing data to ensure product quality attributes meet consumer expectations, and a communication process to notify customers when the ability to supply compliant products is temporarily halted. The assessment ensures that measures are in place to safeguard customer property and verify its correct use within the facility. Buildings and equipment must be constructed and maintained to meet quality requirements, and methods for calibrating quality testing equipment must be documented. Storage and transport of materials should maintain product integrity, and a comprehensive food quality plan must be developed, identifying quality threats and critical quality points. The plan, created by a multidisciplinary team, should include validated procedures for monitoring and controlling significant quality threats. Additionally, the assessment ensures that non-conforming products and equipment are appropriately managed, product rework processes do not compromise quality, and positive product release procedures are in place to meet all customer, regulatory, and company requirements.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Quality System Verification ensures the processes and documentation related to validation, verification activities, corrective and preventative actions, and internal audits. Validation activities are examined to ensure they authenticate critical quality limits, process controls, and other quality tests established to meet customer requirements, with records maintained for these validations.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Product Identification, Traceability, Withdrawal, Recall, and Crisis Management ensures that all finished products are labeled according to customer, regulatory, and company requirements.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Food Fraud involves evaluating the site’s vulnerability to ingredient or product substitution, mislabeling, dilution, and counterfeiting that could adversely impact food quality.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Identify Preserved Foods focuses on ensuring that the methods and responsibilities for the identification, label approval, and processing of foods and other products requiring preserved identity (such as Kosher, Halal, organic, GMO-free, regional provenance, free from, fair trade, etc.) are documented and implemented.

This assessment of SQF Edition 9: Quality – Training ensures that appropriate training is provided for tasks critical to the effective implementation, maintenance, and improvement of quality requirements. The assessment verifies that instructions are available explaining how critical tasks are to be performed to meet customer and company specifications and maintain quality and process efficiency.