Starting Out: Prerequisite Programmes, HACCP, and Your First Food Safety Certificate

Every certified food manufacturer started somewhere. For most South African businesses, the first food safety certificate is SANS 10330 — built on Prerequisite Programmes and HACCP. This is what that starting point looks like and how to get there.

Every food business that holds FSSC 22000 or BRCGS certification today started with the same foundations: Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs) and a HACCP plan. For most South African businesses, the journey toward a food safety certificate begins with SANS 10330 — the South African national standard that formalises those foundations into a certifiable system. This post is for businesses at the beginning of that journey.

What Are Prerequisite Programmes (PRPs)?

Prerequisite Programmes are the operational and hygiene conditions that must exist in a food production environment before HACCP can function effectively. They are the foundation — without them, a HACCP plan is built on unstable ground.

Think of PRPs as everything your facility and operation must do as standard practice to prevent food safety hazards from being introduced, regardless of what you are producing. Every food safety standard — SANS 10330, ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, BRCGS — requires PRPs as a non-negotiable baseline.

The core Prerequisite Programmes for a South African food manufacturer include:

• Cleaning and sanitation — documented schedules, verified procedures, effective chemistry
• Pest control — proofed facility, licensed service provider, documented program
• Personal hygiene — handwashing, protective clothing, illness reporting, visitor controls
• Water quality — potable water supply, monitoring, testing
• Waste management — waste segregation, frequency of removal, hygiene at waste points
• Allergen management — identification of allergens in use, segregation, labelling controls
• Supplier control — approved supplier list, incoming raw material specifications and checks
• Equipment maintenance — preventive maintenance schedule, calibration of monitoring equipment
• Temperature control — cold chain management, refrigeration monitoring, cooking controls
• Traceability — ability to trace raw materials through production to finished product
• Foreign body control — glass policy, metal detection, sieve and filter management

What Is HACCP and Why Does It Come After PRPs?

HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) is a systematic approach to identifying and controlling food safety hazards — biological, chemical, and physical — that could cause illness or injury if not controlled. HACCP does not work in isolation. It works on top of a functioning prerequisite programme.

The reason PRPs must come first is logical: if your cleaning is unreliable, your pest control is failing, or your temperature monitoring equipment is uncalibrated, HACCP cannot compensate. PRPs create the controlled environment. HACCP then identifies the specific points in your process where hazards must be actively controlled to prevent foodborne illness.

A HACCP plan built on weak PRPs will fail under audit — not because the plan is wrong, but because the foundation it depends on is not functioning. Every experienced food safety auditor checks the PRPs first.

What Is SANS 10330 and What Does It Require?

SANS 10330:2020 is the South African National Standard for a food safety management system based on Prerequisite Programmes and HACCP principles. Published by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), it is the most widely used food safety standard for South African food manufacturers at the entry level of formal certification.

SANS 10330 follows 12 stages of HACCP development:

1. Assemble the HACCP team
2. Describe the product
3. Identify intended use
4. Construct a flow diagram
5. Confirm the flow diagram on-site
6. List all potential hazards, conduct hazard analysis
7. Determine Critical Control Points (CCPs)
8. Establish critical limits for each CCP
9. Establish a monitoring system for each CCP
10. Establish corrective action procedures
11. Establish verification procedures
12. Establish documentation and record-keeping

The completed HACCP plan, together with documented and implemented PRPs, forms the core of a SANS 10330-compliant food safety management system.

What Does BRCGS Start! Offer at Entry Level?

BRCGS (Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standards) operates a simplified programme called BRCGS Start! designed for smaller food manufacturers and businesses with less complex operations that want to demonstrate food safety competence but are not yet ready for full BRCGS Food Safety certification.

BRCGS Start! is an audited, certificate-issuing programme that covers the fundamental requirements of food safety management. It is important to understand, however, that BRCGS Start! is NOT GFSI-benchmarked — it is a stepping stone, not the destination for businesses targeting major SA retailers or international markets. Full BRCGS Food Safety certification is required for GFSI recognition.

For South African manufacturers, BRCGS Start! is most relevant if you are already in a BRCGS supply chain or if a specific buyer has accepted it as an interim requirement while you build toward full BRCGS certification.

How to Build Your First Food Safety System: A Practical Starting Point

For a food manufacturer starting from nothing, the practical sequence is:

1. Assess your current position — walk your facility and document what controls already exist: how you clean, how you control pests, how you monitor temperatures, who your suppliers are, how you manage allergens. Most businesses have more in place than they realise — it just is not documented.
2. Implement and document your PRPs — for each control area, create a written procedure, assign responsibility, establish frequency, and begin keeping records. This alone, done consistently, forms the bulk of a SANS 10330 system.
3. Build your HACCP plan — assemble a food safety team, complete the 12 HACCP stages for each product category, identify your Critical Control Points, and establish monitoring.
4. Run your system for at least one full production cycle — certification bodies want to see that records exist and are being kept. A newly written system with no records will not pass a Stage 1 document review.
5. Commission a gap assessment or internal audit — before inviting a certification body, have someone review your system against the standard requirements to identify gaps.
6. Apply for certification — engage a SANAS-accredited certification body, arrange your Stage 1 document review, address any findings, and proceed to the Stage 2 on-site audit.

How Long Does It Take to Get Your First Food Safety Certificate?

For a small South African food manufacturer building from scratch, SANS 10330 certification typically takes 3–5 months from the start of implementation to certificate in hand. A medium-sized business with some existing documentation and controls can often achieve it in 2–4 months.

The most common cause of delay is not the audit itself — it is the time required to build real records. A HACCP plan can be written in a week. The records that prove it is being followed take months to accumulate. Start the documentation process immediately, because that record history is what the auditor will check.

Is Your First Certificate the Last?

For many businesses, no. SANS 10330 is the right starting point — it builds the correct habits, documentation discipline, and food safety culture. But if your ambition is to supply Woolworths, Pick n Pay own-brand, or any international market, SANS 10330 is not the end destination. It is the foundation you build FSSC 22000 on.

A business that builds SANS 10330 properly — real procedures, real records, real team engagement — will achieve FSSC 22000 faster and for less money than a business that tries to jump straight to FSSC 22000 without that foundation. The investment in the first certificate is not wasted. It is redirected.

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