An SQF certification consultant is an outside advisor who helps a food site build the food safety system that the SQF Code requires and get it ready for the certification audit. SQF, Safe Quality Food, is a food safety standard that many retailers require of their suppliers. If a customer just told you that you need it, this is who you hire, and a few things about the role are worth knowing before you make that call.
The consultant doesn't certify you. An independent certification body sends an auditor, and that body issues the certificate. The consultant also can't run your program day to day, because SQF expects a company employee to be your SQF practitioner, the person who owns the system on site. So the consultant builds the system with you and trains that person. Your certification body can't do the consulting either, because of impartiality rules, so you end up with two separate companies.
The work usually starts with a gap assessment, which compares what you do today against each requirement in the SQF Code and gives you a written list of what's missing. Next comes your HACCP-based food safety plan, a written analysis of what could make your food unsafe and where you control it. Then the prerequisite programs, such as sanitation, pest control, allergen management and supplier approval, followed by the documents, training for your practitioner, and a mock audit. A mock audit is a practice audit run the way the real one will be, so the findings show up before the auditor does.
How long does it take? In my experience it often runs three to six months, depending on your size and what you already have. A site with a working HACCP plan moves faster than one starting from nothing. Cost depends mostly on how much writing you want the consultant to do and how much you'll do yourself with coaching, so I'd be wary of any price that isn't tied to a written scope. Scoped mock-audit work costs less than having a consultant write your whole document set, and a firm quote should come after the gap assessment. Also ask your customer which SQF code they require. For most manufacturers selling to retailers, it's the Food Safety Code. Ask your certification body which edition of the code your audit will use, too.
Before you hire, check four things. Start by asking whether they're registered with SQFI, the organization that runs the SQF program. Its criteria include approved training and several years of food industry experience, with at least two on SQF or a similar retailer-recognized food safety standard, and you can verify registration in SQFI's consultant directory. Then ask for experience in your product category, since a bakery and a cold storage warehouse have very different hazards. It's also fair to ask to see a sample deliverable, like a gap assessment report, and to ask whether they'll be on site at your audit and what happens if the auditor raises a finding, meaning something the auditor says doesn't meet the code.
I'm Jared Clark with Certify Consulting. I've sat on both sides of the audit table. We cover the whole path I just described, from the gap assessment through support during your certification audit, and we recommend the right SQF code for your business. You can book a free 30-minute call, and the link is in the description.
Today, write down three things: which SQF code your customer requires, your product category, and who on your own staff will be the SQF practitioner. Every consultant you talk to will ask for all three, and the practitioner choice affects your schedule, because that person has to be trained and takes part in the mock audit.
