Alyx Sherwood (00:00)
Welcome to our webinar on SQF Edition 10. Today I’d like to welcome my esteemed colleagues, Richard and Sarai. They are our quality experts at Nulogy and they’re here to answer all of your questions about getting ready for Edition 10 before the 2027 deadline. ⁓ couple of housekeeping items, this webinar will be recorded and we will be sending out the recording about a day or so after the webinar concludes.

We’re also working on a cornerstone page that will give you even more resources on edition 10 so that you can get started. We do have a chat enabled if you have comments throughout the webinar. If you have questions, please put it in the Q &A panel that will allow Richard or Sarai to be answering your questions throughout the webinar. And we will be having some Q &A towards the end. So without further ado, I’m going to turn off my screen and let Richard and Sarai really run the show and give you all the top-down information you need about

SQF edition 10.

Richard Wilson (00:57)
So take Thanks, Alyx Thanks for that introduction. If you just want to jump to the next slide, we’ll start with some introductions. So obviously, my name is Richard Wilson, Solutions Engineer and Marketing Manager here at Nulogy based out of Belfast, Ireland. Now, my role sits across marketing and sales.

So I spent a lot of time working directly with food safety and quality teams, understanding how they’re managing food safety, quality, supplier management. And really it’s all about kind of exploring where we can help by providing the end-to-end quality and compliance system as part of NewLegis’ wider manufacturing operating system, which Sarai is going to get to in just a second. But really looking forward to today and helping you understand what…

what SQF Edition 10 is bringing to the table, what it means beyond the standard and sharing some of our own knowledge and how you can better prepare for it.

Sarai Liggins (01:52)
Yeah, my name is Sarai Liggins and I’m product manager here at Nulogy. I’m focused on Nulogy’s quality and compliance solution. So really working with our customers and manufacturing to see what we can do to help with things like SKF and make sure you’re ready to meet those regulatory requirements. If you just want to skip to the next slide Alyx.

Great. So just a little bit of an introduction to Neology. For those of you unfamiliar, I would imagine most of you probably are familiar, but for those of you who aren’t, we support co-packers and manufacturing sites globally. We’re used across multiple continents, languages, many different environments. So we’ve got a lot of visibility into how food safety systems perform.

practice as well as in theory. So this is really fundamental to edition 10. The fundamental thing here is about system effectiveness. So understanding how these systems operate on a day-to-day basis is really key to achieving this sustainable certification. The next slide then just gives you a bit of an overview of our manufacturing operating system.

So we provide a platform that is connected across your full operating system. So we’re linking production, compliance, maintenance, warehouse, and all the different elements that those contain. Those are all connected within what we call our unifying core. You’ll see there today, we’ve got compliance highlighted. So that’s really the area we’re going to be focusing on a little bit later on. And then within that at the bottom, you’ll see as well, we’ve got our collaborative network.

And so within that we’ve got supplier compliance, inventory, visibility, vendor management and supplier collaboration. So again, today we’re going to be talking a little bit later about supplier compliance as well.

Next side.

Richard Wilson (04:00)
Yeah, thanks for that introduction, Sarai. just before we do get into the nitty gritty here, I just want to walk through what we’re going to cover here today that you see on your screen. So we’re going to begin with what’s really changing with SQF Edition 10, focusing on the shifts towards that system effectiveness, risk-based thinking, stronger supplier oversight. And then from there, what we’ll do is we’ll have a look at where sites

are likely going to be most vulnerable during this transition and some of the common gaps that we’re already seeing today. And we’ll also touch a little bit on the documentation and your internal audit readiness, followed by a look at those supplier controls and how they’re also going to be evolving with SQF Edition 10. And then after that, we’ll have a look at that audit prep side, that continuous compliance, which is a very major kind of mindset shift with this new edition. Like Sarai mentioned there, we’re going

lead out today’s webinar with know how can Nulogy and our quality and compliance system really support that transition in a very practical operational way where we’re actually making life better for people behind every SQF certified product and specifically those who are planning, producing and delivering as well.

Next slide, please. Thank you. So what SQF has done really with Edition 10 is really raise the bar from, do you have a system to does your system actually work under pressure? And this is showing up in four core areas that you see on the slide in front of you. So historically, system effectiveness, a lot of sites have passed audits because they had the right documentation and processes in place.

Edition 10 is adding to that. So auditors are now looking for proof of the execution and consistency, not just do you have a procedure, but is it followed? Is it measurable? And does it actually reduce the risk that’s currently ⁓ occurring? And that moves us on to that risk-based thinking. So this is where things get a lot more interesting. So we’re moving away from the static programs to awards.

what we like to call living breathing risk-based system. For example, environmental monitoring is no longer a set and forget. It has to evolve based on your actual risks. So if your operation changes, your risk controls should be able to change with that. And you need to be able to justify why you’re actually making those changes. So it should be very flexible in that regard. And then of course, one of the biggest shifts with addition 10 is the supplier oversight. And honestly, I think

where a lot of organizations will and still struggle today is that active supplier oversight. It’s no longer enough to say we’ve got an approved supplier list. You need to demonstrate how suppliers are qualified, how supplier risk is assessed, and how that performance is actually monitored over time. And most importantly, you need to demonstrate this is happening continuously. This is not just a ⁓ once a year type activity. And this all looks nicely together.

into our evidence-based compliance. And this is a big one. So, Edition 10 is specifically built around evidence. So, this means that your system has to tell a story. Your records, your audits, your CAPAs, they all need to connect and prove that your food safety system is effective and it’s not just being documented. And this is where we’re seeing a gap today. A lot of these different sites operating what we call an audit mode. So, pulling everything together just before an audit.

But addition 10 is really designed to break the back of that. So the sites that are going to succeed here are the ones that embed this into their daily operations, where compliance isn’t just an event, it’s how the business runs ⁓ every day. So with that in mind, we can dive into this in more detail. So this is when it really starts to get real. So because everything we just talked about, it really only matters if we actually translate it into what this actually means for your day-to-day operations.

So addition 10 is not asking you to do more work. It’s really asking you to really prove that the work that you’re already doing is actually effective. And that’s a very different standard. And if we look at system effectiveness there, addition nine, if documentation existed, you’re in a good position. Your processes were in place. But addition 10, documentation and process is a great starting point. But now we’re looking at that consistency over time. So the question starts to become, are your checks being completed every time?

Are issues being closed out properly and can you prove that trend over a specific timeframe? Because the certification is tied and needs to be tied to that real performance. It’s not just a structure that you have at site level or across your organization. And then when we talk about risk-based thinking, it’s no longer something that lives inside your asset plan. It needs to show up in your daily decisions. For example, how often and when you decide to audit, how you monitor your environment, how you prioritize your suppliers.

These should flex based on the different risk levels. So not just following that fixed cadence. And this is a big shift because the static programs are really, the static systems of programs you have in place today, they’re really going to limit your ability to actually adapt as we look at, you know, edition 11 and so forth as well. And then like I mentioned earlier, that supply oversight. So this is probably where most organizations are going to feel that pressure. You know, you’re moving from, yes, we have proved them to

We continuously understand how our suppliers are performing. And this means ongoing risk evaluation, performance tracking, clear and re-qualification criteria. And also off the back of this, you’re reporting your KPI dashboards, your analytics. This is going to allow you to get that real time monitoring of performance. And we’re not just talking about collecting documents and certificates, but it’s actually understanding.

how your suppliers are performing over time and trending that data and capturing that key business intelligence to drive your decision making. And of course, we look at the document implementation piece as well. This is where everything comes together. And addition 10 is essentially saying, if it’s not happening consistently, it doesn’t exist. And even more importantly, if you can’t prove it, it didn’t happen at all. And what we’re starting to see here across the industry is a real divide starting to emerge.

On one side, you’ve got teams who are operating off spreadsheets, shared drives, paper, or even fragmented digital systems or multiple different tools to run your food safety and quality program. And on the other side of the coring, we’ve got these teams who are moving towards this connected real-time system like Nulogy, a system that can provide all these capabilities in a connected workflow under one roof. And the gap between those two different processes is only going to widen.

with addition 10. And this slide here is to show you that shift that we look at compliance as a task, but now we’re more for compliance ⁓ as a system. And once you start looking at through that lens, it becomes very clear where that pressure point is gonna start to build for your organization.

Alyx Sherwood (11:20)
that.

Richard Wilson (11:22)
So

if you take nothing else away from today, these are really the six kind of core areas I’d be really stress testing in your operation right now ahead of addition 10, because this is where we’re gonna start to be able to expose those gaps very quickly. When we look at that undocumented implementation, you know, the first probably most common, and it’s a big one, most sites do the work, but they can’t prove consistency across different shifts, different lines, different sites.

And that’s going to be a problem because the proof now lives in execution, not just your intention. And this ties directly to what the auditors are going to be looking for. Evidence that procedures are followed consistently and not just written down. And then again, that supplier performance, know, addition 10 is very clear that you need to show how they’re performing over time. How is the risk being reassessed and what you’re doing when there’s actually, there’s required changes that need to happen.

We’re not just collecting documentation, we’re actively managing this supplier, this vendor within the system. And of course the CAPA effectiveness, closing an issue is not enough. You’re now looking at root cause, verified effectiveness, prevention of a reoccurrence. And this is one of the biggest risks in addition to that because if it’s not unresolved or it’s poorly managed issues, these can escalate.

even minor ones into major findings. And when we start to talk about the scoring and grading, you’ll see that, know, CAPA is no longer just an admin. It’s a core part of your audit defensibility, especially with achieving the higher grades for edition 10. And then has this again, has to be a living reflection of your operation. What we’re seeing in many HACCP plans today is they don’t evolve with new suppliers, process changes, environmental risks. And this new edition, it really emphasizes

much stronger expectations around the change management and risk alignment. So as your operation changes, so should your hazard process. And then we also look at the, just on the right side, the internal audit gaps. a lot of programs that we see today are still checklist driven, fixed schedules, not risk-based, but addition 10 expects that full system coverage.

prioritization based on the risk and strong cap of follow up that corrective action and preventative action follow up as part of your process. So your internal audit tool is really going to become your true verification tool, not just a general compliance exercise. And of course, always been important, but we keep kind of beating the same drum around this food safety culture. at times it’s still a very underestimated area because culture used to be quite subjective, but with addition 10,

we’re now making it more measurable, visible and it’s demonstrated through behavior and this is now a formal requirement not just a nice to have. And when you bring this all together and these different these six kind of wrist zones the important thing to kind of relay here is for you to manage all this you have to have one system that’s connected, it’s leviting and breathing.

different components, different workflows are talking to each other. Something that’s triggered here in one aspect of your value chain is triggered and connects to the end part of your value chain. And that’s what we also always try to emphasize and build at Nulogy about this one system under one roof.

So on the surface, the scoring model hasn’t really changed. It’s still a 100 point system with deductions. But in reality, the impact of the findings has changed quite significantly. And that comes down to one thing. And I’m sure you’ve heard of it already, which is the core clause waiting. So in addition nine, a minor was a minor, a major was a major. But in addition 10,

where that finding actually sits matters just as much as the severity. So for example, a minor finding used to cost you one point. if it’s against a core clause, it costs you two. Alyx, if you go to the next slide, might be good to show some of the scoring there. So yeah, if I’m…

If a minor finding used to cost you one point, but yes, if it’s against the core clause, it costs you two. A major finding used to be five points. And now a core clause major is seven points. And they’ve increased the weighting on these areas. So that actually drives food safety risk. So what does this mean really in practice? So it means that if two sites with the exact same findings,

can now walk away with very different scores. And if you look at the right hand side column here, you know, if those findings sit in, for example, HACCP or supplier management, you’re going to feel that a lot more heavily in addition 10. And that’s intentional because what SQF are trying to do is really align the scoring with the actual food safety risk, not just the volume of issues that are being raised. So this isn’t just about more non-conformances, it’s about more meaningful non-conformances.

And you’ll see there as well on the table, if there’s repeat findings, know, addition nine, you could sometimes carry similar issues from audit to audit, but addition 10, that scrutiny really increases repeat issues now signal that system failure, not just an isolated gap. So what you’re seeing is sites that historically might have scored well, you know, you may see that some scores maybe drop under addition 10 without actually doing anything differently. So it’s about how can we…

build a system and put that in place that’s going to still create those higher scores for us.

So if we step back and have a look here at everything we’ve covered so far, these are really the four structural shifts in addition to addition 10 and what’s really being driven here. And this is when it comes, it moves away from audit theory to actually operational reality. So you can no longer spread that risk across clauses. So in addition 10, you could maybe absorb the risk across the system. You might have a few gaps, but still maintain a strong score overall. That’s a lot harder now. And just to put it in simple terms there, it just means you can’t.

certain items that we can’t maybe shy away from, we have to ensure that everything and all the risk is captured and monitored and controlled. And that links into our our capital effectiveness as well. you know, this is going to directly influence the outcomes where every corrective action now needs to stand up to scrutiny and not just exist. And then that feeds nicely into that visibility into the trends. So when we look at

organisational today and the systems are using, visibility is still difficult. So addition 10 really expects you to understand your system over a specific time, not just what happened or what keeps happening and why. We want to see trend analysis, repeat non-performance tracking, using that insight for management decisions. We’re looking for patterns now, not just points in time. And as part of that, comes in that system effectiveness.

You know, moving from that audit’s day readiness to the system effectiveness, Edition 10 is still using the same scoring model, but it’s designed to better reflect the actual food safety risk and performance, and not just the documentation piece. So you’re not asked, the question is no longer, are you ready for an audit? It’s, your system working every day?

So I just want to take a couple of slides here just to discuss the documentation, your internal auto program and then some of the supplier controls. So your food safety management system, you know, it’s not from a document control perspective, it’s no longer enough to have the version control documents. You need to have that clear linkage between the document and its execution. So not just here’s the procedure, it’s where’s the evidence it was followed across time, dates, people.

across different shifts. And this aligns with that core SQF principle, say what you do, do what you say and prove it. And then we look at the risk-based system evaluation there. So risk just needs to be incredibly structured. We’re pushing now more towards risk registers or something similar where you can document the likelihood, severity, the validation of controls. And this is all about making risk more visible, not just

buried inside HACCP documentation as an example. And of course, training is still a major component here. It’s no longer really focusing on being attendance-based, but competency-based. So you need to prove that people understand, can apply, and consistently follow procedures. And this ties directly into that food safety culture and the overall audit outcome. And change management.

It’s a huge component of this and it’s becoming more formalized. So anytime you change a supplier, a process, a material, you need to show that impact assessment, that risk evaluation and the traceability. And this is a big shift because a lot of changes today still happen informally in an organization. And then we also look at the cap and record. So closed loop, rooted in that true root cause and backed by that.

and effectiveness verification, not just we fixed it, here’s the proof, but here’s we fixed it and it’s not gonna happen again because we have identified it, applied the correct root cause and followed that process. Now, if you look at the transition to the internal audit side here, if documentation is your foundation, your internal audit on the right hand, it’s gonna be really your proof mechanism.

So when you look across different sides of this slide, it’s very clear what addition 10 is really driving you towards is that structured connected evidence driven system, not documents sitting in a folder somewhere, but systems that capture data, link all these processes and improve performance over time.

Alyx Sherwood (21:54)
other.

Richard Wilson (21:57)
Now,

this is one of the most important shifts of Edition 10 and honestly, one of the areas where I mentioned earlier that organizations are going to be feeling the pressure. We’re moving from, do you have approved suppliers to do you actively understand how your suppliers are performing today? Because historically, supplier management has been quite static. So you approve a supplier, you collect a certificate, you file it away, and that’s often where it stops. Whereas in Edition 10, there’s a clear push towards ongoing

supplier verification and risk alignment, not just that initial approval. And that’s because a lot of food safety incidents today don’t start inside your facility, they start upstream in your supply chain. So the system, and Sarai’s gonna touch more later around the supplier management piece, is so critical to this standard. When we look at the risk-based supplier categorization there, it’s about treating, it’s about moving away from…

treating suppliers like they’re all the same. We need to classifying suppliers based on risk, product types, impact your operation. And more importantly, define then what triggers a reassessment because at the end of the day, risk isn’t static and your supplier program shouldn’t be either. And then that feeds into those performance KPIs and the trending. And this is where some programs fall down. We need to be able to monitor COA compliance.

non-conformances, auto outcomes, certificate expiry, delivery quality, and actually start to trend that data because a supplier isn’t approved. They’re either performing or they’re not performing. And then when we look at that re-qualification piece there, this just can’t be as vague as it once was. We need to find timelines. We need risk-based frequency. We need clear escalations if things are overdue. And this ties directly back to that change management protocol as well.

which is now a formal requirement in addition to them. And of course, with goes without saying the non-performance response, if a supplier issue occurs, what happens next? Is there an escalation? Is there defined actions? Is there clear decision-making around the use, hold and reject stages? Because this is where risk either gets controlled or starts to slip through the cracks.

So just to wrap everything up that we’ve discussed so far, if edition 10 is really about proving your system works, then the internal audit program is going to be critical because that’s going to be what makes this all possible.

internal audits are no longer just a requirement, they are a specific mechanism that SQF are using to validate that entire system. And as SQF kind of themselves put it, internal audits should challenge whether your system is actually effective and not just compliant. And that’s really the messaging that’s surrounding this new update. So when we look at these different stages, you know, from the scheduling,

You know, it’s not just a calendar, it’s risk-based covering all system elements and evolving based on different performing processes, suppliers, you know. And then we look at the higher risk areas, supplier management, HACCP, CAPA. We should all start to actually focus and get more focus on the specific zones within your organization. And you look at the execution, this means observing operations, speaking to teams, validating actually what’s happening on the floor.

and then capturing evidence, document what’s observed and building a clear picture of what’s going on over time. And then with the CAPA, the true root cause, the ownership, the timelines and the effectiveness validation, addition 10 is very clear, fixing the issue is not enough. You need to prove that it won’t happen again. And that comes with the verification. So this is where you close that loop because before anything is closed,

You need to ask, did this actually work? Because without that verification, you don’t have a system. You just have an activity that you did. So you need to really close that loop on the entire ⁓ process.

So I think that’s a good kind of transition away from really hovering on the SQF. I really want to get into now as part of the webinar how Nulogy helps ensure compliance with Addition 10. But just to close this off, know, as organizations do get this right, it’s the ones that move away from those disconnected audits, those manual tracking, reactive capital, these connected workflows.

and the real-time visibility and that continuous verification. And that’s exactly what Sarai is going to show you here in talk two, how you can actually operationalize this in a way that is scalable and efficient with Nulogy.

Sarai Liggins (27:04)
Thank you Richard. I realise we’re coming close to time so we’ll go through this as quickly as we can. ⁓

So first up, we just want to talk about why you should choose Nulogy to help you meet the new edition 10 of SQF. So Richard has touched on quite a few things there that are really focuses for us here, particularly looking at Nulogy’s quality and compliance solution. We’ve talked already about evidence-first architecture. So everything being recorded, everything being timestamped in an audit trail, being audit ready. We have a great example.

I’ve probably mentioned this on a webinar before, but it’s one of my favorite examples of one of our customers that were being audited and the auditor arrived ready to look at all these books and they just handed them the laptop and said, here you go, logged into quality and compliance and they were able to just find everything they needed. And that auditor went back to their own company and they became our next customer. So that just shows how much information was available to them. What should have taken days probably took. ⁓

ours much, much quicker. Connected quality and operations. And I think this is really something that Nulogy can offer that not many other products on the market can offer. And that we have so many products within this manufacturing operating system that we’ve talked about earlier that are linked together. So all of these, all of these different processes can be connected with Nulogy. Supplier network visibility. I will actually

I’ll skip over that and just talk about that in a second. And then also they’re designed for multi-site scale. you can have quality and compliance working across all of your sites, whether that’s 10 sites or 40 sites or 100 sites. ⁓ Our asset structure allows you to assess that across many different areas with visibility across all. And the next slide then.

Richard Wilson (28:56)
Sarai, sorry, I jumped in there. Don’t feel rushed to get through some of these slides. I know I was speaking a lot to the SQF Edition 10 there and I want to get as much information out as possible. But you know, this will also be on a recording. So if anybody needs to drop off, they can. So don’t feel rushed to get through the slides in the next minute or so. Take your time.

Sarai Liggins (29:17)
No problem. All right, so then how can Neology help you meet each of these requirements? So we’ve got a couple of the different requirements called out here and connected then to specific features that we offer. So first up there, we’ve got document control, which is like two requirement 2.2 around the food safety management system. So we have full drives, we call it, ⁓ documents with ⁓ full audit trail.

and version control and you can have documentation expiry alerts that will touch again on later on. ⁓ So all of that is there and will help you to stay compliant with the management system. Supplier management ⁓ focuses on requirement 2.3 and so you can ⁓ assess each of your suppliers. You can have a risk rating attached to them with ⁓ status attached so you could see if they’re active suppliers and you can

and activate them until they’re up to date again, if needed. Performance dashboards, automated requalification reminders. So if there’s something that your supplier needs to do within a certain time period, you can have those notifications going out automatically. Corrective and preventative actions is one of the core functions of quality and compliance. And that’s linked then obviously to 2.5.2 and the edition 10 requirements. So there’s a full closed list.

issue resolution workflow there. you have root cause capture so you can actually build in what we call a five wise workflow. You can have as many different fields there as you need to to make sure all the information is captured. You can attach evidence of your corrective action and preventative action. You can trend on this so you can categorize each of your issues and then trend that later on.

So there’s a really, really comprehensive workflow built in there for the corrective and preventive actions. And just quickly then we’ll talk about HACCP and risk management. So we do have full risk management workflow as well. Any paper process that you’re doing right now can be digitized in quality and compliance, including your HACCP. And that can all be scheduled. So you can have weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, whatever sort of process you need.

to make sure you stay on top of your food safety plan. That’s linked down pretty closely to the internal audit management. ⁓ Again, with the schedules, you can also use mobiles to conduct any of these assessments and that mobile works offline as well. So if you’re in a factory that maybe doesn’t have great connectivity, you can still be on top of your assessments that can all be done offline. ⁓ If you come across an issue and you hit…

The score to say, for example, this is a minor issue, will automatically generate that non-conformance and trigger off that non-conformance workflow, which obviously has that closed-lib verification as well. And lastly, they’re linked to 2.2. We’ve got the training and competencies. So any sort of competency assessment records can be completed on quality and compliance as well. Recertification scheduling can be automated.

And it just gives you that gap visibility for your compliance. Next slide, Yeah, so kind of what we’ve touched on already, really looking at how this provides the full connected workflow. So your full FSQA lifecycle is connected when you use Nutlige. So that’s an important part of addition 10.

that it requires that your food safety controls are operated as an integrated lifecycle. So you can see there in the image you’ve got from your supplier intake right through the process within the factory to the dispatch and shipment and complaints and all those things can all be managed in this one connected system. And the next slide then. So we’re just going to touch quickly on the supplier quality and compliance. We have mentioned this a little bit before.

But your full supplier quality can be managed through quality and compliance. There’s a third party dashboard so your suppliers can actually log in themselves. If you have assessments that you need them to fill in, instead of you doing it manually for them, you can actually assign that out directly to your supplier. They’ll get a notification, they’ll get a link, they’ll be able to log in and actually fill in all that information for you.

As part of that, then they can also upload any documentation that you require. And we’ll talk about that a little bit more in the next slide. But it takes the load really off you for having to chase up on these documents. You can just send it out and they can fill that in themselves. Their dashboard also gives them, you can see sort of in the image there, the dashboard also gives them an overview of any outstanding actions. So any assessments they need to complete, if you have any non-conformances.

that you want to assign out directly to your suppliers, you can do that as well. So they can actually log in and complete their own non-conformances as well. And then we’ve also mentioned there the raw material process too, which is a really important part of the third party workflow. Then looking at the document and certification management. So linked to what we talked about before.

and you can send out a document to your suppliers and you can send out an assessment to your suppliers where they can then upload any of the documentation or certification that you need from them. Whenever they upload that, they can put in their certification expiry dates and all that sort of information and that is all then stored in our document file list.

And within that, we’ve actually got an AI assisted document review. So that will actually review the document. It’ll review the information that has been attached to the document and verify whether that information is accurate or not. If it’s not, it’s going to highlight to you that there’s a mismatch there. And that should massively cut down on the amount of time that’s needed to be spent manually reviewing these documents. And it also then, as I think we mentioned previously, it also gives you the option

to automatically reschedule those documents to be reattached. So the system will look at, for example, this document is due to expire at the end of next week. You can build in a workflow that says one week before that document expires, that assessment should be reset to the supplier so that you can make sure that they’re always on top of their documentation. So we’re using AI here too, as it says at the bottom, just to accelerate the review. So you’ve still got the control over it.

The human and lip review is still there and still necessary, but it should massively reduce the amount of time you’re having to spend reviewing those documents. I think that’s off.

Richard Wilson (36:36)
Yeah, I just want to make a point here as well while we’re on this slide. what we are doing as well is we’re putting together some resources around edition 10. Myself and Alyx will follow up some of the attendees from the webinar today. But you’ll also be able to access that and our resources on the website as well. we’re going to continuously.

pumping out some resources, educational content, as we kind of work with you in terms of how we can tackle addition 10, and as well as any of our customers on the call today, you you can reach out to your account managers and, you know, we can kind of help assist you in what that process is going to look like, and we can run gap assessments with yourselves, et cetera, and really hold your hand on this journey.

Alyx Sherwood (37:28)
All right, thank you, Richard. Thank you, Sarai. I apologize for going over. There’s a lot of content as we go. Yeah, that’s nine to edition 10. So I like to it. No, love the comparison part specifically just showing what it is now with nine and 10. I know I found that incredibly helpful. If you have questions, go ahead and pop them in the Q &A chat. We already got one from Simon. Simon asks,

Richard Wilson (37:36)
My fault.

Alyx Sherwood (37:52)
how are core clauses actually defined in SQF edition 10 and how do auditors treat them differently?

Richard Wilson (37:59)
Yeah, that’s a good question. you know, this is probably from what I’ve spoken about today. This is one of the most important aspects of Addition 10. So those core clauses are the requirements that are really considered the fundamental aspects to actually preventing those food safety failures. things like your HACCP, your food safety plans, your sanitation and environmental monitoring is a key one, your management commitments, your allergy and controls.

And then in addition to non-conformances in these specific areas, like I showed on that table, are going to carry a greater weight in the audit outcome because they represent a higher food safety risk. So the auditors, not just looking for a number of findings, they’re looking at whether those findings sit in that critical part of your system. And that’s why I mentioned that two sites with similar findings can now have very different outcomes.

Alyx Sherwood (38:57)
Okay. I’ve got another question from Beth. We’ve been talking a lot about documentation. What does SQF Edition 10 expect when it comes to food safety culture and how do you actually demonstrate it?

Richard Wilson (39:10)
So that’s a great question. So from the food safety culture perspective, having that documented food safety culture plan, having documented outline SOPs, training effectiveness, employee feedback, leadership involvement, and continuous improvement activities, these all need to be visible and evidence, not just stated. the auditors, they’re going to be looking

for proof that the food safety is actually embedded in behaviors and not just written policies. it can no longer be soft or ⁓ an implied requirement. It’s something you need to formally define, measure and demonstrate. like I said, document a food safety plan, set in measurable objectives and showing engagement across all levels of the business.

Alyx Sherwood (40:06)
And then I see one more question. This one’s from Ellie. Thank you for showing the comparison chart. What level of detail is expected for internal audits under edition 10? Is a checklist still enough?

Richard Wilson (40:17)
Well, short answer, Ellie, to be honest, a checklist alone won’t be enough. know, internal audits in SQF have always been required to cover all elements of the system, but Edition 10 are really ⁓ reinforcing that they need to assess system effectiveness, not just compliance. So that means observing operations on the floor, interviewing staff, ⁓ reviewing…

require records over time and validating whether procedures are actually still being followed up consistently. And a strong internal audit, you you should be able to assess each clause of the SQF code, evaluate the CAPA from the previous findings, and then also ⁓ identify trends of reoccurring issues. So it becomes less of that

Tech body, exercise, if you will.

Alyx Sherwood (41:14)
Okay. Speaking of core clauses, Angelina has a question. Can you explain the core clause findings, please, during an audit?

Sarai Liggins (41:14)
.

Richard Wilson (41:23)
Yeah, so the core clauses, they’re really the foundational requirements of a food safety system. So these elements are built for your food safety management system. They’re to prevent food safety failures and ensure the system actually works. So how they’re identifying that is every finding raised in an audit is linked to a specific clause of the SQF code. And whether that clause is non, whether that’s core or non-core.

And then the auditor is going to determine whether that is a major, minor or critical. And like I mentioned on the table, then those are going to have different points in there, different scoring points. And then of course, the typical core clauses and areas that are being included are the HACCP, the food safety plan, and the allergen management, the sanitation and environmental monitoring, and the supplier approval and verification.

management commitments and your CAPA management, your corrective action and preventative action management. So if this fails, then that means that fruit safety is failing as well. So the core clause finding is not just not conformance, it’s signaling that the actual system might not be working effectively for managing your fruit safety or preventative controls might be weak.

Sarai Liggins (42:44)
Okay.

Alyx Sherwood (42:45)
Thank you everyone for all of your questions. A recording of this webinar will be sent out to you in another day or so. I’d like to thank Richard and Sarai for taking time to answer all of these SQF questions. And again, that comparison chart of SQF edition 10 and nine is going to be extremely helpful. I might even include a little screenshot of that just for your reference. Perfect. right. Thank you everyone for attending.

Sarai Liggins (43:09)
All right.

Richard Wilson (43:10)
Have a good day. care. Bye bye.