Food companies recognize the value of the Safe Quality Food label by the name alone. But are you aware of the benefits of supplier SQF certification even if your company has nothing to do with food?
If you routinely use specialty oils (such as white oils and color-stable process oils) in your manufacturing operation that need to satisfy any of these requirements:
Precisely formulated
Contaminant-free
Safely stored
Efficiently transported
Then SQF certification in your supply chain is important!
March 2023: Renkert Oil’s Channahon, IL white oil production facility earns perfect 100% SQF certification score on independent audit!
Why SQF Certification Is About Much More than Food
At its heart, SQF is a manufacturing efficiency and quality management system (QMS) that is universally applicable well beyond food industry supply chains.
Here are a few quick facts:
Based on ISO 9001. This internationally-recognized QMS, known to help companies ensure consistency, improve quality, contain costs, and improve efficiency, is the basis for SQF.
Internationally approved by the Global Food Safety Initiative. GFSI is harmonizing food safety and quality systems. Like SQF, a similar quality management system, Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) is approved by GFSI.
Backed by the SQF Institute. As a division of the highly regarded Food Industry Association, SQFI created the certification and carefully manages its implementation.
As your raw material suppliers maintain SQF certification, here are a few ways that the benefits extend to you and the customers and consumers you serve.
1. Managing Your Risk
Supply chain risk management is particularly important when tainted raw materials could threaten visible product quality, human safety, or both.
SQF-certified suppliers create a culture of risk reduction to give you peace of mind. Facilities implement a strategy to deal with various disaster scenarios and test the system routinely and rigorously.
In short, SQF helps you serve your customers consistently by ensuring that specialty oils arrive on time while always meeting your exact product specifications.
2. Enhancing Your Credibility
An SQF-certified supply chain signals to your current customers and prospects that your company is serious about product quality, health, and safety.
As SQF is built on top of ISO 9001, exceeding internationally-recognized standards of excellence, clearly communicating this will set you apart in your industry.
Furthermore, SQF certification may be a distinctive factor worth touting in marketing communications. This is particularly true for food manufacturing but may also apply to:
Pharmaceuticals
Personal care products
Food contact polymers
Agriculture
Any product categories that involve human contact
3. Satisfying Your Customers
Think of your SQF-certified supplier as part of your customer care team. If and when a concern arises, such as a sudden demand-driven modification to a specialty oil formula, SQF can help.
Here at Renkert Oil, we’ve established a corrective preventative action response (CPAR) process inspired by the SQF playbook. Our readiness to pivot is built into the scheme.
This agility comes from a culture of risk minimization (always asking “what if this happened?”), and meticulous documentation that lays out a game plan before the need arises.
The continuous improvement approach to the entire SQF quality management system further advances your results with Renkert Oil.
4. Staying Ahead of Regulations
Every industry leader keeps a watchful eye on the regulatory horizon. But knowing what’s coming is simpler than establishing the processes necessary to adapt in time.
As it is a leading-edge certification program, having supplier partners that are trained in SQF is extremely helpful. The capacity for adaptation is reinforced by testing for weaknesses and exploring response plans to a wide range of potential industry or environmental shifts.
Specifically, these and other processes are already in place and ready to be implemented:
Meticulous process documentation and document review
Policy review, update, and approval
Operations manual review, updating and approval
HACCP adaptation (continual analysis and improvement of hazard control)
Annual Security challenges to test the systems
Disaster recovery planning
Due to SQF’s high standards, the process of annual certification often puts Renkert Oil customers ahead of regulatory changes even before they’re announced!
Renkert Oil’s Chicago-area White Oil Production Facility Nails 100% SQF Certification
We are proud to announce that our barge-accessible white oil facility on the DuPage River in Channahon, Illinois has earned its SQF certification for a second year (2022, 2023).
Also, this is the second Renkert Oil facility with this enviable result this year!
A passing score of 70 percent is required for suppliers to be certified. This team not only earned 100 percent but achieve this after only two years of operation!
This is thanks in large part to our Director of Quality and Marketing, Suzanne Kingsbury, who has worked closely with the Chicago team over the last two years to instill SQF standards!
Suzanne Kingsbury, Director of Quality and Marketing, Renkert Oil
It’s also thanks to our specialty oil customers whose innovative work in food manufacturing, thermoplastic elastomers, and a variety of other industries inspires us to serve with distinction.
