SQF Certification for Frozen Foods & Ready Meals

Frozen and chilled ready meals use the SQF Food Safety Code: Food Manufacturing under Food Sector Category (FSC) 20, Recipe Meals Manufacturing, which lists "frozen meals, pizza, frozen pasta, soups, and meal solutions, sous vide products, and freeze-dried and dehydrated meals." Frozen fruit and vegetables are FSC 14 under the same code, so one certificate can cover both. Frozen raw meat cuts and ground meat (FSC 7), other meat and poultry products where meat is the major ingredient (FSC 8) and frozen seafood (FSC 9) use the SQF Food Safety Code: Animal Product Manufacturing.

Mixed foods prepared from a range of ingredients that need cooking, heating, freezing or refrigerated storage before serving. SQFI's examples include ready-to-eat chilled meals and desserts, frozen meals, pizza, frozen pasta, soups, meal solutions, sous vide products, freeze-dried and dehydrated meals, and sandwiches, wraps, plated or boxed meals and high-risk desserts for food service. FSC 20 uses the SQF Food Safety Code: Food Manufacturing and Module 11, and Edition 10 keeps its name and description.

It depends on the product. FSC 8 covers products where meat or poultry is the major ingredient, and FSC 20 covers recipe meals made from a range of ingredients. Your site and your certification body agree the scope of certification, including the food sector categories, before the initial certification audit, so the certification body confirms the category. A plant that makes both may need both codes; SQFI's annual site fee is $650 for one code and capped at $800 for two or more.

It depends on how much meat or poultry the product contains. FDA regulates meat products with 3% or less raw meat or less than 2% cooked meat, and poultry products with less than 2% cooked poultry meat; USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) regulates products with more than 3% raw meat or 2% or more cooked meat or poultry. FDA regulates closed-face sandwiches unless they're part of a dinner, while USDA regulates open-face sandwiches and dinners that contain a sandwich. Meals and products made with fish and other seafood are generally FDA-regulated, except fish of the order Siluriformes, such as catfish, which FSIS inspects.

No. FDA says Listeria monocytogenes "can grow at refrigeration temperatures and freezing will not eliminate or reduce the pathogen," and FDA's 2017 draft guidance says freezing can't be relied on to eliminate or reduce it. In an SQF audit, the controls that matter are a validated cook step, segregation of cooked product in high-risk areas (11.7.1, or 9.7.1 in Animal Product Manufacturing), environmental monitoring (2.4.8) and sanitation.

Yes, under SQF: clause 2.4.8 requires a risk-based environmental monitoring program for all food manufacturing processes, with a sampling schedule, testing locations and a plan for handling unsatisfactory results. Under FDA's preventive controls rule, the hazard evaluation must include environmental pathogens whenever a ready-to-eat food is exposed to the environment before packaging and the packaged food gets no treatment or control measure, such as a lethal formulation, that would significantly minimize the pathogen (21 CFR 117.130(c)(1)(ii)), and environmental monitoring is required where that contamination is a hazard requiring a preventive control (117.165(a)(3)). Under FSIS's Listeria rule, plants making post-lethality exposed ready-to-eat meat and poultry that rely on sanitation alone (Alternative 3), or on Alternative 2 with only an antimicrobial agent or process that limits growth, must test food contact surfaces for L. monocytogenes or an indicator organism (9 CFR 430.4(b)).

Clause 11.6.2 (9.6.3 in the Animal Product Manufacturing code) requires you to confirm that freezing, chilling and cold storage facilities perform effectively, to have enough refrigeration capacity for the maximum anticipated throughput, to monitor temperatures with equipment placed at the warmest part of each room under a written procedure, to keep temperature records, and to route defrost and condensate lines to the drains. Clause 11.6.5 (9.6.6) adds temperature checks when refrigerated vehicles are loaded and unloaded.

Not on every product, but SQF can require them: clause 2.3.1.2 calls for shelf-life trials, where necessary, that validate a new product's consumer preparation where applicable, plus its storage and handling, and each food safety plan documents intended use, including any further processing (2.4.3.5). USDA FSIS requires safe handling instructions on raw and not-ready-to-eat meat and poultry products and validated cooking instructions on a few products, such as needle- or blade-tenderized beef, but not on every product. Label compliance is checked at product release (2.4.7.2).

Sometimes. Under 21 CFR 117.3, a ready-to-eat food includes any food that it's reasonably foreseeable will be eaten without further processing that would significantly minimize biological hazards. FDA's 2008 draft compliance policy guide on Listeria monocytogenes (not for implementation) adds that a food may be considered ready-to-eat even when its label gives cooking instructions, names individually quick frozen (IQF) peas and corn as examples, and notes that some consumers eat such products without cooking. The 2016 Listeria outbreak linked to CRF Frozen Foods involved frozen vegetables. In SQF terms, your food safety plan records each product's intended use and the potential for consumption by vulnerable groups (2.4.3.5), and your hazard analysis follows from that.

SQF defines a high-risk area as a segregated room or area where high-risk food processes are performed and a higher level of hygiene is needed to prevent contamination by pathogens. Under clause 11.7.1, food that has had a kill step or is handled after processing is protected from raw materials and the staff who handle them, ambient air is tested at least once a year, staff are dedicated to the area and change into clean clothing, and product transfer points are designed to keep the segregation.

It can. The rule covers foods on FDA's Food Traceability List, such as frozen finfish, crustaceans and molluscan shellfish, frozen nut butters, and fresh or frozen products made with raw, unpasteurized eggs, plus foods that contain a listed food in the same form. Produce appears on the list as fresh or fresh-cut. A plant that applies a kill step to a listed food it receives, or changes it so it's no longer on the list, generally still keeps receiving records (21 CFR 1.1305(d)), and the rule doesn't apply to food during or after the time it's under exclusive USDA jurisdiction (1.1305(g)). Congress directed FDA not to enforce the rule before July 20, 2028. SQF's traceability clauses (2.6) apply to every product in your scope.

No. FDA-regulated plants must register with FDA and renew every other year between October 1 and December 31 of each even-numbered year, including 2026. Only facilities regulated exclusively by USDA throughout the entire facility are exempt (21 CFR 1.226(g)), so an FSIS-inspected plant that also makes FDA-regulated food registers too, and FSIS-inspected establishments operate under FSIS inspection. SQF certification is voluntary and sits on top of these rules: clause 2.4.1 requires you to meet the food law that applies to you.

No. SQF certification is voluntary. The legal requirements are FDA's food facility registration, preventive controls and labeling rules, or USDA FSIS inspection, HACCP and labeling rules for meat and poultry products. A retailer, foodservice company or brand owner may still ask its suppliers for GFSI-recognized certification such as SQF.

Several, listed here A to Z. For frozen food and ready meal 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 and Animal Product Manufacturing, Edition 9. ASI Food Safety, LLC (Kiwa ASI) is licensed by SQFI and accredited by ANAB (accreditation ID 1222) to ISO/IEC 17065 for those codes. SQFI places FSC 14 and FSC 20 under the Food Manufacturing code and FSC 7, 8 and 9 under the Animal Product Manufacturing code, and ANAB's listing names codes, not food sector categories. SQF rules require an auditor registered with SQFI for your food sector category, or a registered auditor assisted by an SQFI-approved technical expert, and we confirm how your audit meets that rule when we scope it.

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 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, cook-validation data and water tests, as part of the audit.