What's Inside the Figuro Intermediate Food Safety System?

What the Intermediate System Is and Who It's For

The Figuro Intermediate Food Safety System is a comprehensive document kit for food businesses that have moved beyond the startup phase and need to meet the higher documentation demands of formal retail supply chains or internationally recognised certification. It costs R5,000 and delivers 26 professionally written, audit-ready DOCX templates plus 5 consultant explainer guides.

It is built for three types of businesses:

• Businesses supplying major South African retailers — Woolworths, SPAR, Shoprite, and Pick n Pay all require suppliers to demonstrate structured, fully documented food safety management systems before listing products
• Businesses pursuing FSSC 22000 or full GFSI recognition — these schemes require all 11 PRPs to be documented and implemented, not just the five covered in the Basic System
• Businesses that have outgrown the Basic System — if your operation has expanded, your product range has grown, or a retailer or auditor has told you your current documentation is insufficient, the Intermediate System fills those gaps

The Intermediate System is not a certification in itself. It gives you the complete document framework — all templates, all records, all programmes — that an auditor will expect to see in a mature, well-run food safety management system.

What "All 11 PRPs" Means in Practice

Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs) are the hygiene and operational conditions that your facility must maintain as the foundation of any food safety system. The Basic System covers the five PRPs most critical for small operations: sanitation, pest control, personal hygiene, allergen management, and traceability.

The Intermediate System adds the remaining six PRPs, completing the full set required by FSSC 22000 and BRCGS:

• Maintenance of equipment and facilities — documented procedures for preventive maintenance, breakdown records, and equipment suitability assessments
• Supplier management — a formal approved supplier programme with assessment criteria, performance monitoring, and documented approval records
• Cross-contamination prevention — procedures and physical controls to prevent microbiological, chemical, and physical contamination between products, processes, and areas
• Water quality management — documentation of water sources, testing schedules, and corrective actions for non-conforming water quality
• Waste management — waste identification, segregation, and disposal procedures with records
• Foreign body control — glass and hard plastic registers, detection equipment records, and foreign body incident management procedures

Retailers do not accept partial PRP coverage. If you are going into a Woolworths or SPAR audit with only five PRPs documented, you will receive major non-conformances. The Intermediate System closes that gap before the auditor arrives.

The Food Safety Culture Programme

One of the most important additions in the Intermediate System — and the one businesses most often overlook — is the food safety culture programme.

Food safety culture is the shared values, beliefs, and behaviours in your organisation around food safety. Since FSSC 22000 Version 5.1 and the updated BRCGS Issue 9, formal food safety culture programmes have been mandatory, not optional. Retailers' own audit schemes have followed.

In practice, what auditors want to see is:

• A documented food safety culture policy and commitment statement from management
• Evidence of food safety communication to all staff (meeting records, notice boards, toolbox talks)
• A food safety culture assessment or survey showing baseline measurement
• An improvement plan based on that assessment
• Records showing the programme is reviewed and updated

The Intermediate System includes all of these templates. You do not need to build a food safety culture programme from scratch — the structure is already done. You fill in your specific commitments, actions, and evidence.

The Full Operational Control Cycle

The Intermediate System includes a complete operational control cycle — the documents and records that cover everything from raw material intake to finished product release. This is the layer that sits between your HACCP plan and your daily operations, and it is where most businesses have gaps when they go into a formal audit.

The operational control templates include:

• Raw material and ingredient specifications
• Finished product specifications
• Goods-in inspection records and certificates of analysis review
• In-process monitoring records aligned to your HACCP plan
• Product release authorisation procedures
• Non-conforming product control — hold, quarantine, and disposition records
• Customer complaint records and trend analysis templates
• Internal audit schedule and audit records
• Management review agenda and minutes template

Together, these create a documented loop: plan what you will produce, control how you produce it, verify that controls worked, and review the system. That is what a full operational control cycle looks like on paper, and it is what a certification auditor will trace from end to end.

The 4 Standards It Meets

FSSC 22000

FSSC 22000 is a full GFSI-recognised food safety management system standard built on ISO 22000 plus sector-specific PRPs and FSSC's own additional requirements. It is the certification that the most demanding retailers and export markets require. The Intermediate System provides the complete documentation framework for FSSC 22000 certification — not just the development pathway, but the full standard.

GFSI Global Markets Programme

The GFSI Global Markets Programme has two levels. The Basic System covers the Basic level. The Intermediate System covers the Intermediate level — a more comprehensive assessment that requires all 11 PRPs and a fuller operational control record set. If your retailer customer is asking you to achieve GFSI Global Markets Intermediate, this is the document kit you need.

BRCGS Start!

BRCGS Start! is BRCGS's entry-level programme. The Intermediate System exceeds Start! requirements and positions you for progression to full BRCGS Food Safety (Issue 9) certification. If you are on the BRCGS pathway, the Intermediate System gives you more than Start! needs — which means when you are ready to move to full certification, much of your documentation is already in place.

SANS 10330

SANS 10330:2020 is South Africa's national HACCP standard and the reference framework for domestic retail and regulatory requirements. The HACCP templates, PRP documentation, and operational records in the Intermediate System are fully aligned with SANS 10330:2020 requirements. Read more in our complete guide to SANS 10330.

How It Differs from the Basic System

The Basic System (R3,500) is 17 templates covering 5 PRPs and the foundational HACCP documentation. It is right for small businesses preparing for a first audit at GFSI Global Markets Basic or BRCGS Start! level.

The Intermediate System (R5,000) is 26 templates covering all 11 PRPs, the full operational control cycle, and the food safety culture programme. The R1,500 difference buys you 9 additional templates and two entire programme areas — operational control and food safety culture — that are mandatory for retailer supply and formal certification.

If you are unsure which system fits your situation, read the Basic vs Intermediate comparison.

Delivery and How to Use It

The Intermediate System is delivered as a digital download within 1 business day of payment by EFT. You receive 26 DOCX files (editable in Microsoft Word or Google Docs) and 5 PDF explainer guides.

The process is the same as the Basic System:

• Open each template in your word processor
• Read the accompanying explainer guide for that document group
• Complete the highlighted fields with information specific to your business, products, and processes
• Maintain the completed documents as your live food safety management system records

The templates are designed to be completed by a food safety-aware business owner or manager. The explainer guides explain what each document is for, what an auditor is looking for, and what to write in each section.