New scheme promises safety certification at a lower price

The Society of Food Hygiene and Technology (SOFHT) is launching a low-cost, web-based food safety certification scheme.

SOFHT Certification, which will be launched in the next few months, is targeted at small and local suppliers and costs £200 to complete for SOFHT members and £300-400 for others. It is part of SOFHT's strategy of growing its company membership by providing an additional range of services.

SOFHT claimed its scheme, under development for the past 18 months, addresses some of the criticisms directed against the entry-level Safe and Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) certification scheme, which targets a similar market.

Because its certification is risk-based and simple to complete online, SOFHT claimed it avoids some of the cost and audit inconsistency criticisms levelled against the SALSA scheme.

Developed in conjunction with certification body Cert ID, the SOFHT Certification had to be simple and cost-effective enough to ensure buy-in from suppliers yet robust enough to ensure products were legal and safe, according to the society.

SOFHT board director Simon Houghton-Dodd said: "We have presented it to three of the top five retailers and also to a senior environmental health officer to see whether we had come up with an idea that was practical and would work." SOFHT plans to present the scheme to the other main retailers before it is officially launched, he added. "And we are trying to get [the Food Standards Agency's] buy in."

Cert ID md Richard Werran added: "The industry recognises SALSA had been a very good approach but it has drawn some negative criticism [about the auditing process] ... and the take-up has not been as high as people had expected."

With SOFHT Certification, suppliers complete applications and questionnaires online; submissions are reviewed remotely and risks assessed by qualified food technologists at Cert-ID. All high risk operations are audited by Cert ID prior to certification, while low risk operations will be audited in years two or three of their submissions being approved. No additional charge is imposed for the audit. "We expect about 20% of applicants could present a high risk," Werran estimated.

Houghton-Dodd said he expected take-up of the scheme to be around 100-150 small companies in the scheme's first year, rising to between 400 and 800 over five years.