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.
New to food safety? Start with Figuro Begin — the free mobile app that helps you understand R638, prepare for your Certificate of Acceptability, and know exactly what systems to build next. It's where the journey starts before you build anything.
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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A Certificate of Acceptability (CoA) is the legal permit to operate a food premises in South Africa. You need one before you can manufacture and sell food — here's how it works.
Issued by your local municipality's Environmental Health Department under R638 (Regulations governing general hygiene requirements for food premises). Without it, you cannot legally manufacture and sell food from your premises.
Contact your local municipality and ask for the Environmental Health Department. Apply at the municipality where your food premises is physically located. They will schedule an inspection before issuing your CoA.
You don't need a complete food safety system before you start keeping records. These are the documents every food business should have from the beginning — they become the foundation your HACCP plan builds on.
Log temperatures at least once a day. Date, time, reading, who checked it. This is the single most commonly requested record in any food safety audit — and the most commonly missing one.
What gets cleaned, when, with what, by whom. A simple table works. Sign it off each time it's done. This proves your premises is maintained — not just assumed to be.
Keep every invoice and delivery note from every supplier. They prove traceability — where your ingredients came from, when they arrived, what condition they were in.
A signed record that each staff member received food safety training, and a periodic health declaration. Legally required, and one of the first things an auditor checks.
Records are evidence that you are in control — not just saying you are. An auditor doesn't trust a verbal "yes we check temperatures." They look for the log. Starting your records now means that when you build your HACCP plan with Figuro HACCP Builder, you're not starting from zero. You already have a history of control.
R638 sets the minimum requirements for all food premises in South Africa. What those requirements look like in practice depends on how and where you operate. Here's a guide by business type.
Usually limited to lower-risk products. Full R638 compliance may not apply but a CoA is still strongly recommended — and most markets, pop-ups, and online platforms will ask for it.
The kitchen operator holds the CoA — but you are still responsible for your own food safety records while you're using the space.
You need your own CoA and must comply with R638 fully. An Environmental Health Officer will inspect before issuing, and may return for periodic re-inspections.
They hold the CoA and the HACCP plan — but you still have a responsibility to understand and verify their system. Their food safety is your brand risk.
Use the Certification Navigator above — it will help you understand where you are and what your next step should be. Or use Figuro Begin (the free mobile app) to assess your premises readiness before speaking to your Environmental Health Officer.