Free tools, guides, and Figuro explainers for South African food founders who want to lead their own food safety — not just survive it.
The South African food certification landscape is genuinely confusing. This tool cuts through it.
Three real founder moments. See how your food business handles a bad week — and what it would cost. Three spins. Two minutes.
Play now →Work through all 10 clauses of SANS 10330:2020 and see exactly where your system stands. Progress saves in your browser.
Open checklist →Figuro grows with your business. Start with HACCP. Add PRPs. Build the culture.
Build a complete, science-backed HACCP plan. From food safety team to validated CCPs — guided, documented, and downloadable.
Document and manage your prerequisite programmes — the foundation that makes your HACCP plan defensible and your factory audit-ready.
Build food safety culture and business risk awareness from the ground up. For founders who want to lead, not just comply.
Set up your profile & team
Describe your product & process
Identify & assess hazards
Determine CCPs & controls
Download your audit-ready plan
Retailers have requirements. But your responsibility as a food business founder runs deeper than any retailer's checklist — and understanding that changes everything.
When someone opens your product and feeds it to their family, they've placed their trust in you completely. HACCP — Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — is the system that makes that trust defensible. Retailers ask for it. The law implies it. But fundamentally, it's the minimum a responsible food founder owes the consumer.
The path most SA food businesses take looks like this: HACCP first (your foundation and legal baseline), then a GFSI-benchmarked standard like FSSC 22000 (the international gold standard that opens every door — retail, export, global). Figuro is built to walk you through that journey.
Retailer expectations are a useful reference point — not the destination. They all converge on the same place: GFSI. The table below shows where each retailer is on that spectrum right now.
| Retailer | Minimum | Preferred / Full Supplier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woolworths Food | HACCP documented | FSSC 22000 or BRC | Own WQA (Woolworths Quality Assurance) audit process. GFSI-benchmarked standard typically required for direct suppliers. |
| Pick n Pay | HACCP documented | FSSC 22000 | HACCP as minimum for smaller or market suppliers. FSSC 22000 expected for larger direct supply contracts. |
| Checkers / Shoprite | HACCP documented | FSSC 22000 | Own supplier qualification process. Increasing push toward GFSI-benchmarked standards for private label. |
| SPAR | HACCP + SPAR audit | FSSC 22000 | Operates own SPAR supplier qualification audit. Individual SPAR groups may have additional requirements. |
| Dis-Chem | GMP + HACCP | ISO 22000 | Strong focus on health and wellness product compliance. Regulatory compliance (MCC/SAHPRA where applicable) alongside food safety. |
| Clicks | GMP + HACCP | ISO 22000 | Similar requirements to Dis-Chem. Food-adjacent and health product focus. Own supplier onboarding process. |
| Food Lovers Market | HACCP documented | FSSC 22000 | More accessible entry point for artisan and small-batch suppliers. HACCP documentation typically sufficient to begin. |
GFSI doesn't issue certifications — it benchmarks them. FSSC 22000, BRC Global Standards, SQF, and ISO 22000 are all GFSI-benchmarked schemes. Achieving any one of them means you've met an internationally recognised standard for food safety management. Every major SA retailer accepts them. Every export market recognises them. They all require a functioning HACCP system as their foundation. Start there. Build up.
You don't need six months to build a defensible food safety system. Here's what most founders achieve in their first month.
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After years of sitting on both sides of food safety audits, these are the gaps that catch businesses off guard — every time. Most are fixable in a day if you know what to look for.
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