SQF
Also called Safe Quality Food
A food safety certification scheme recognised by GFSI, and the one most large US retailers expect a manufacturing site to hold.
SQF certification is audited against a published code, at a site rather than a brand. If your co-packer is SQF certified, products made there benefit from that certification — you do not hold it yourself.
It is recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative, which is what makes it portable: retailers who require a GFSI-benchmarked scheme will generally accept SQF, BRCGS or FSSC 22000 rather than insisting on one.
Practically, it is a gate. Many national retailers will not list a product that was not made in a certified facility, so a site’s certification and its expiry date are commercial facts about your business, not just theirs.
NextBatch keeps this straight for you. Cost per unit, tolling tiers, yield and traceability all derive from the same plan you and your co-manufacturer share — so none of it is a number somebody typed twice.
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