Choose a Certification and Pass Your First Audit

Which GFSI scheme (if any), and how to walk into the first audit ready.

1. Do you need GFSI certification at all?GFSI is a benchmark, not a certificate — how to decide whether certification belongs on your roadmap yet, why the demand comes from your buyers rather than the law, and what it costs before you commit.
2. Choosing among SQF, BRCGS, and FSSC 22000All three are GFSI-recognized, so the choice usually comes down to which scheme your buyers accept — here is how SQF, BRCGS, and FSSC 22000 differ, and how to confirm the current edition before you build to it.
3. The SQF Practitioner: who they are and what they must doSQF makes you designate a Practitioner to own your food-safety system — here is what that person must be, who should run your internal audits, and why the Practitioner is not your PCQI.
4. Writing SOPs specific enough to pass an auditWhy "clean food-contact surfaces daily" fails an auditor, the five things every procedure must actually name, and how to keep the paper matched to what your floor really does.
5. What happens in your first audit — and where first-timers failHow the certification audit actually runs — the records review, the floor walk, how findings are graded, and the handful of gaps that write up most first-timers — so the day is a confirmation, not a scramble.