SQF Code Edition 9 - Safe Quality Food 2.1.1: 2.1.1 Management Responsibility (Mandatory)

Senior site management sets a policy statement committing all site managers to supplying safe food, building and keeping a food safety culture, establishing and continually improving the food safety management system, and meeting customer and regulatory requirements for safe food; the statement is signed by the senior site manager, posted prominently and communicated to all staff in languages they understand (2.1.1.1). Senior management leads the food safety culture so that food safety objectives and performance measures are set, documented and communicated, resources are sufficient, SQF practices are adopted and kept up, employees know and are held to account for their food safety and regulatory duties, are encouraged and obliged to report actual or potential issues, and are empowered to resolve issues within their work (2.1.1.2). A reporting structure names personnel with food safety system responsibilities and a backup for key people, key job descriptions are documented, and departments are staffed and aligned to meet the objectives (2.1.1.3). A primary and a substitute SQF practitioner are designated per site with authority to oversee the SQF System's development, implementation, review and maintenance, act to protect its integrity and communicate what staff need to know (2.1.1.4); both are employed at the site and hold responsibility for the SQF System, have completed HACCP training, can competently run and keep up plans built on HACCP and understand this Code for the site's scope (2.1.1.5). Management resources training to meet 2.9 and ensures staff competence for functions affecting food legality and safety (2.1.1.6), keeps the system intact through organisational or personnel change (2.1.1.7), and defines blackout periods for unannounced re-certification audits with justification, sent to the certification body at least one month before the sixty-day re-certification window (2.1.1.8).