How do I get SALSA certified as a small food producer?
As a small food producer, you’ve built a product people want to buy. The next stage of your growth means proving to your trade customers that it’s safe and compliant.
You’ve decided SALSA is your next step. Perhaps a buyer has asked for it, or you can see the doors it would open for your business.
So, you download the standard and find pages of requirements, a choice of membership packages and an audit at the end, with no obvious place to start.
This guide takes you through each stage of the SALSA certification process, what your food safety systems need to cover and what to expect at your audit.
What is SALSA, and who is it for?
SALSA stands for Safe and Local Supplier Approval. It’s a food safety certification scheme for micro, small and medium-sized food and drink businesses, typically those employing up to 50 people and working from commercial premises.
Larger manufacturers supplying the major supermarkets usually certify to a global scheme such as BRCGS. Those standards demand a level of infrastructure, documentation and resources that most small producers can’t support and don’t need. SALSA sets a proportionate bar instead. It focuses on practical, legally compliant food safety management that a small team can run alongside everything else.
SALSA certification is voluntary. There’s no law that says you must have it. But much of what a SALSA auditor checks is a legal requirement. Under UK food safety laws, every food business must have food safety procedures based on HACCP principles and must be able to trace what it buys and who it supplies.
So, if your business is already compliant, a large part of SALSA is proving that to an independent auditor. If it isn’t, the certification scheme gives you a structured route to get there.
Are you eligible for SALSA?
Before you spend any money or time, check that SALSA fits your business. There are three things to consider:
Your premises. You must operate from a registered commercial kitchen or production unit. Domestic kitchens are generally not eligible for SALSA, so if you’re still producing from home, moving into suitable premises comes first. Those premises must also be registered with your local authority at least 28 days before you start trading, which is a legal requirement.
Your size. SALSA is aimed at businesses that typically employ fewer than 50 full-time staff. If you’re well beyond that, or are already supplying the major retail chains, BRCGS may suit you better.
Your product. Most producers certify to SALSA’s Food & Drink Production standard issue 7. Specialist versions also exist for some sectors, such as SALSA plus Beer for breweries and SALSA plus Cheese for cheesemakers, each tailored to the processes those businesses run. Getting this right at the start means you won’t prepare for a standard that doesn’t match your business.
SALSA’s requirements
The SALSA standard sets out every requirement your business will be measured against. These four areas form its backbone:
A HACCP plan specific to your process
HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point. It’s a system for identifying what could make your product unsafe, whether biological, chemical, physical or allergenic, and controlling those hazards at the points where they can be prevented, removed or reduced to a safe level. Those points are your critical control points (CCPs). For SALSA, your plan must reflect what happens in your production, step by step. Documentation that doesn’t match your process is one of the first things an auditor will pick up.
Traceability
You must be able to trace every ingredient you use one step back to the supplier you bought it from, and every product one step forward to the customer you sell it to. In practice, that means keeping batch records linking your incoming ingredients to your finished batches and outgoing deliveries. If a supplier ever flags a problem with an ingredient, these records will tell you which products are affected and where they’ve gone.
Staff training
UK food law requires everyone handling food to be supervised and trained in food hygiene to a level that suits their role. The usual benchmark is a Level 2 food hygiene certificate for food handlers and Level 3 for supervisors. SALSA auditors will also expect to see up-to-date training records.
Prerequisite controls
These are the day-to-day procedures that keep your production environment safe and support your HACCP plan. SALSA expects documented procedures for allergen management, pest control, cleaning schedules and product testing. If you make several recipes on shared equipment, allergen management is essential. Paperwork alone won’t carry you through. The auditor will compare what’s written with what happens on your production floor, so your systems must be in daily use, with records to prove it.
The SALSA certification process, step by step
Most of the work in getting SALSA certified happens before the auditor arrives. The four stages below explain what that work involves and what you should have in hand for each step of the process:
Register and choose a membership package. Membership gives you access to the SALSA standard, the self-assessment tools, the criteria you’ll be audited against and the cost of your on-site audit.
Carry out a gap analysis. Download the latest version of the SALSA standard and work through it line by line, comparing each requirement with what your business already has in place. This exercise will give you a list of what’s missing.
Close the gaps. Build or update your HACCP plan, set up traceability records, organise staff training and write up your prerequisite procedures. Then, put them into practice. Systems written the week before an audit, with no records behind them, are easy for an auditor to spot.
Request your audit. When you’re confident that your documentation, training and day-to-day practices all match the standard, book your audit through the SALSA online portal.
What to expect on the day of your audit
Your audit will be carried out on site by an IFST-approved auditor. They’ll review your documentation, including your HACCP plan, traceability, training records and procedures. They’ll also watch production while it’s running to check that what’s on paper matches what happens in practice.
Where the auditor finds a requirement that isn’t fully met, they’ll record it as a non-conformance. These are common, especially at a first audit, and they don’t mean you’ve failed. You’ll usually have 28 days to provide evidence that you’ve corrected them, such as updating a procedure, completing a record or providing proof of training.
Once the auditor approves all your corrective actions, you’ll receive your SALSA certificate and your business will be listed in the SALSA directory.
Membership is annual, so the systems that carried you through the audit need to keep running afterwards. The key thing to remember is that the audit tests your everyday working practices. If you prepare on that basis, there should be fewer surprises on audit day.
Getting SALSA-ready with Beacon Compliance
For a small producer, preparing for SALSA means building a HACCP plan, traceability, training records and written procedures while still making, selling and delivering your product. While that’s achievable, it takes time that most small teams don’t have to spare.
Beacon Compliance has guided many food businesses through this process before. We can carry out your gap analysis, help you build systems that reflect how you work, and prepare you for what the auditor will look for.
Book a free, no-obligation consultation to talk through where your business stands and what it needs to get SALSA certified.
