SQF Certification for Co-Packers & Contract Manufacturers

No. SQF has no separate category for co-packing or contract manufacturing. SQF certification is site specific and product specific: your scope of certification names your site, the food sector categories (FSCs) for what you make and the products themselves, and every listed product is audited and listed on your certificate. Products you make under your customers' brands are certified the same way as your own.

No law requires it. SQF certification is voluntary, but brand owners, retailers and foodservice companies may ask their co-packers for GFSI-recognized certification such as SQF. It sits on top of FDA and USDA rules and doesn't replace them.

The code that covers your products; for most food categories, that's the SQF Food Safety Code: Food Manufacturing, which covers FSCs 10 to 22, 25 and 33, including beverages, snacks and baked goods, confectionery, sauces and dressings, dry ingredients, ready meals and dairy. Manufactured meat and seafood products (FSC 8 and 9) use Animal Product Manufacturing, dietary supplements (FSC 31) use Dietary Supplement Manufacturing, and pet food (FSC 32) uses Pet Food Manufacturing. A plant whose products span two codes may need both, so your certification body confirms the scope.

Yes, at one site. Your scope lists your site, food sector categories and products, so products for different customers can sit under one certificate as long as they're in scope. SQF certification is site specific: separate premises can be part of one site only when the same senior, operational and technical management oversees them under one SQF system. SQFI's multi-site program is limited to primary production, retail, foodservice, and storage and distribution, so manufacturing plants can't use it.

Validate it in your own system first, and tell your certification body in writing if it changes your scope. A new product needs a food safety plan validated and verified by your food safety team (2.3.1.3) and finished product specifications approved by you and your customer (2.3.2.9). A new product line or food sector category needs a written request to extend your scope, and a new process, a major process change, a new product line or a significant change in personnel, raw materials, packaging or ingredients must be reported to your certification body in writing. The certification body audits the additional products or processes and then issues a new certificate or tells you in writing why it can't. Your recertification date and certificate expiry don't change, and a request received within 30 days before your recertification window may be deferred to that audit (Part A, 15.2).

Yes, if your certification body approves an exemption for specific products or parts of the premises that you request in writing before the certification audit. Approved exemptions are listed in the SQFI assessment database and in audit reports. Premises and processes involved with in-scope products can't be exempted, you must show that exempted products don't put certified products at risk, and promoting exempted products as certified leads to immediate withdrawal of the certificate (Part A, 3.1). An exemption doesn't shrink the site audit: the auditor still covers the entire site, inside and out (Part A, Step 8), and Mandatory clauses can't be exempted.

If the brand owner's own site is SQF certified, clause 2.3.3 applies to contract manufacturers that make, pack or store all or part of a product in that site's scope of certification. Agreements covering food safety and customer product requirements must be documented, and the brand owner documents the food safety risk level of each contract-manufactured product. High-risk products and processes must have an audit, by the brand owner or a third-party agency, confirming compliance with the SQF code and regulatory and customer requirements; low-risk ones must meet the SQF code or another GFSI-benchmarked certification program, plus regulatory and customer requirements. Contract changes are approved by both parties, and records are kept (2.3.3.4). A co-packer's SQF certificate doesn't automatically satisfy 2.3.3; the brand owner decides what evidence it accepts. Under Edition 10, clause 2.3.3 (Contractual Agreements) asks for risk-based confirmation, through an audit by the site, a third-party agency or other suitable means, that contract producers and packers comply with the relevant SQF code.

Not under the manufacturing codes. SQF certification is issued to a site after an audit of that site, so a brand owner with no plant of its own can ask for its co-packers' SQF certificates instead. For businesses that buy, sell and facilitate trade in food without producing, storing or physically handling it, SQFI publishes a separate code, the SQF Code: Agents and Brokers (FSC 35); Kiwa ASI's accreditation doesn't currently include that code. Co-packers' certificates can be checked in SQFI's certified site directory.

You and your customer. Finished product specifications must be documented, current, approved by the site and its customer, and accessible to relevant staff, and must include, where applicable, microbiological, chemical and physical limits, composition to meet label claims, labeling and packaging requirements, and storage conditions (2.3.2.9). Specifications are reviewed as changes occur that affect product safety (2.3.2.10).

In an SQF audit, you are: finished product labels must be accurate, comply with the relevant legislation and be approved by qualified company personnel (2.3.2.7), product must be labeled to the customer specification and/or regulatory requirements (2.6.1.1), and you must control label accuracy so product is true to label for allergens (2.8.1.9). Under FDA's rules, the label states the name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributor, and a company named on the label that didn't make the food must qualify its name with a phrase such as "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by" (21 CFR 101.5). Containers of USDA-inspected meat and poultry bear the official establishment number of the plant where the product was processed under inspection (9 CFR 317.2(i), 381.123).

The co-packer registers its plant. The owner, operator or agent in charge of a facility that manufactures or processes, packs or holds food for U.S. consumption registers it with FDA (21 CFR 1.225), unless an exemption in 21 CFR 1.226 applies; for example, a plant regulated exclusively by USDA throughout the entire facility doesn't register, but one that also makes FDA-regulated food does. A co-packer making FDA-regulated food registers its plant and renews between October 1 and December 31 of every even-numbered year, such as 2026 and 2028 (21 CFR 1.230). FDA's registration guidance says a broker that doesn't manufacture, process, pack or hold food doesn't need to register. FDA counts labeling and packaging as manufacturing/processing (21 CFR 1.227), so a brand owner that labels, packs or stores food at its own facility should check whether that facility must register.

Under FDA's preventive controls rule, you don't have to apply a preventive control for a hazard that your customer, or an entity later in the distribution chain, will actually control, such as a customer that cooks a raw ingredient you make, but you must disclose in documents accompanying the food that it's "not processed to control [identified hazard]" and annually obtain written assurance from your customer (21 CFR 117.136). It doesn't apply when no one after you will control the hazard, such as a finished product your customer only resells. FDA's January 2018 policy said it wouldn't enforce the written-assurance requirements until it completes a related rulemaking, while the disclosure is still required, so check FDA's current policy. In an SQF audit, your hazard analysis and food safety plan (2.4.3) show which hazards your process controls.

Allergen management (2.8.1) is mandatory. You need a risk analysis of allergen-containing raw materials, ingredients and processing aids, including food-grade lubricants; segregation; changeover cleaning sufficient to remove target allergens from product contact surfaces, with validation and verification based on risk; documented changeover procedures; and label controls that keep product true to label (2.8.1.1–2.8.1.9). Where satisfactory line hygiene and clean-up or segregation aren't possible, separate equipment is required (2.8.1.4).

Not always. Where your buyers accept GFSI-recognized certification, an SQF certificate can reduce the number of separate customer audits you host, but retailer-specific audits, such as private label supplier audits, may still apply.

Someone your site employs. Each site names a primary and a substitute SQF Practitioner, both employed by the site, holding a position of responsibility for the SQF system, trained in HACCP and competent to implement and maintain HACCP-based food safety plans (2.1.1.5). SQF Practitioners must complete HACCP training that lasts at least two days and is assessed (Part A, Step 2.1).

Yes. Each SQF food sector category maps to a GFSI industry scope, so your scope follows your products. For example, FSC 16 beverages and FSC 18 preserved foods map to CIV, Processing of Ambient Stable Animal and Plant Products; FSC 20 recipe meals to CIII, Processing of Perishable Animal and Plant Products; FSC 8 and 9 meat and seafood to CI, Processing of Perishable Animal Products; and FSC 31 dietary supplements to K. Check which scope your customer requires.

Several, listed here A to Z. For co-packing and contract manufacturing (GFSI scope C, food manufacturing), GFSI recognizes BRCGS Food Safety, FSSC 22000, IFS Food and SQF, among others. Each customer decides which programs it accepts, and SQF is more common in the U.S. BRCGS Food Safety, FSSC 22000 (Version 6) and IFS Food certificates are issued by Kiwa group certification bodies, not by Kiwa ASI; ask us, and we'll check auditor coverage for your products before quoting. Each program's own scope rules decide whether your products are covered.

Yes, for the SQF Food Safety Codes: Food Manufacturing, Animal Product Manufacturing, Dietary Supplement Manufacturing and Pet Food Manufacturing, Edition 9, among other SQF codes. ASI Food Safety, LLC (Kiwa ASI) is licensed by SQFI and accredited by ANAB (accreditation ID 1222) to ISO/IEC 17065 for those codes. ANAB's listing names codes, not food sector categories, and our accreditation doesn't include the Agents and Brokers code. SQF rules require an auditor registered with SQFI for each food sector category in your scope, or a registered auditor assisted by an SQFI-approved technical expert. Before we quote, we check whether we can meet that rule for your categories, and we'll tell you if we can't.

Every 12 months. Recertification audits fall within 30 days either side of the anniversary of the last day of your initial certification audit. Sites rated C – Complies (70–85) under Edition 9 also get a surveillance audit at six months, and at least one recertification audit every three years is unannounced and fully on-site.

Edition 9, for now. SQF audits use Edition 9 until Edition 10 audits begin, which SQFI says will be no earlier than January 2, 2027, depending on GFSI benchmarking. GFSI opened its public consultation on Edition 10 on September 29, 2026. A single audit won't mix requirements from both editions, and a surveillance audit that follows an Edition 9 audit stays on Edition 9, even if it falls after Edition 10 audits begin. Kiwa ASI's ANAB accreditation currently covers specific SQF Edition 9 codes, so ask which edition your first audit will use, and about our Edition 10 status, when you request a quote.

Yes, if we can meet SQF's auditor registration rule for your food sector categories, which we check before we quote. Under Edition 9, you can change to another SQFI-licensed certification body after one certification cycle (the annual period between certification audits), once all non-conformances are closed, as long as the certificate isn't suspended or under threat of suspension or withdrawal. If a surveillance audit is due, change after it. Your certification number, recertification date and unannounced audit schedule carry over, and your current certificate stays valid until it expires. Once Edition 10 applies (no earlier than January 2, 2027), you can switch after your certificate is issued and before your next audit window opens. Kiwa ASI's ANAB accreditation currently covers specific SQF Edition 9 codes, so ask us about Edition 10 status before you plan an Edition 10 transfer. Send your current certificate and your last recertification and surveillance audit reports.

Plan on at least four to five months from the day your system starts producing records, and longer if you're building it from scratch. SQFI recommends at least 90 days of records before the certification audit, the audit takes at least two days, non-conformances must be closed within 30 days, and SQF gives the certification body up to 45 days after the audit to make its certification decision. The biggest variables are whether a HACCP plan and environmental monitoring program already exist.

First-year cost can range from about $6,000 for a small, well-prepared site to $25,000 or more for a larger plant that needs outside help and upgrades. These are estimates only; your audit fee depends on the audit duration your certification body calculates. The first-year total includes the audit fee (roughly $4,500–$9,000+), SQFI registration ($650 for one manufacturing code, capped at $800 for two or more codes), training, any outside help and any facility upgrades.

70 out of 100 under Edition 9, with no non-conformances left outstanding. Every audit starts at 100 points; each minor non-conformance deducts 1 point, each major 5 and each critical 50. A score of 70–85 (C – Complies) adds a six-month surveillance audit, and a score below 70 or any critical non-conformance fails an initial audit.

No. Kiwa ASI audits and issues SQF certificates; it doesn't provide laboratory testing. SQF requires external testing to be done by laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 or an equivalent standard (2.4.4.2). The auditor reviews your results, such as environmental swab results, allergen verification swabs and water tests, as part of the audit.