AFIA, SQFI Partner on Third-Party Certification Programs for Feed and Pet Food Industries

The American Feed Industry Association is pleased to inform you of an important change to several of AFIA’s third-party certification programs. Starting in October, the administration of the Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program, Pet Food Manufacturing Facility Certification Program and Pet Food Ingredient Facility Certification Program will be handled by the Safe Quality Food Institute. The International Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program will still be a joint program between AFIA and FAMI-QS and administered by AFIA.

With the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act by Congress, and the growing global recognition of third-party certification programs by the food industry via the Global Food Safety Initiative, the time is right to take these programs to the next level of expertise, professional administration and global recognition by the industry and regulators. 

AFIA and SQFI signed a Joint Program Implementation and Marketing Agreement to bring these three AFIA third-party certification programs into the SQFI family of programs. SQFI is recognized by retailers and foodservice providers around the world who require a rigorous, credible food safety management system.

The Joint Program Implementation and Marketing Agreement will bring a number of benefits to program participants including:

• Open access for their choice of multiple, approved certification bodies for their audit;
• Exceeding all of the independent creditability criteria required by consumers and regulators globally;
• Use of SQFI’s certification program to help reduce multi-program inconsistencies and associated costs of multiple audits;
• Makes our programs the “feed segment” of the total food chain; and
• Association with SQFI who is globally recognized and highly regarded.

What’s more, the SQF Program is recognized by GFSI and links primary production certification to food manufacturing, distribution and agent/broker management certification. GFSI is an approved (benchmarked) choice of third-party food safety certification programs that are accepted by many in the retail food industry for their supplier’s participation. This benchmark of programs will bring immediate significant value to the SF/SF, PFMF and PFIF Certification Programs.

SQFI’s mission is to deliver consistent, globally recognized food safety and quality certification programs based on sound scientific principles, consistently applied across all industry sectors, and valued by all stakeholders. Because of this, AFIA believes SQFI is a great partner for offering and administering the feed and pet food industry certification programs. AFIA will continue to provide technical support and expertise to the three certification programs as well as training, marketing and promotion for the programs.

This agreement between AFIA and SQFI will combine the strengths of both organizations for the benefit of the industry and certification program participants. For a summary of AFIA third-party certification programs and a decision tree to help decide what program is right for your facility, click here.