Food Safety Management Systems certification is provided to organizations who have demonstrated that they have implemented a system for food safety along the food supply chain. Throughout the world food safety is one of the most important issues in the food supply chain. Effective hygiene control and preventive measures are vital to avoid adverse human health and economic consequences of food borne illness, food injury and food spoilage. Everyone along the food supply chain including farmers and growers, manufacturers and processors, food handlers and consumers have a responsibility to ensure that food is safe and suitable for consumption.

The better well-recognized food safety systems are the HACCP and the ISO 22000. HACCP is the base requirement for most food companies that need to be implemented to control food safety. A HACCP plan deals with preventing food safety issues by building a plan that accurately identifies and addresses food safety hazards. It also requires the establishment of critical control points that are used to control these hazards. ISO 22000 on the other hand is applied to primary productions and deals with business strategies and structures. It is the aggregation of a fundamental food safety management system and HACCP principles to the whole food supply chain. It also deals with management and communication within the company. Where HACCP is entirely concerned with food safety, the ISO 220000 program also requires quality assurance.

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is another food safety management system that is managed by a private organization dealing with different auditing bodies. Its primary task is to maintain criteria as benchmark food safety standards for food companies. FSSC 22000 is a GFSI benchmarked food safety system.

SAZ currently offers accredited certifications for ZWS ISO 22000 and ZWS 749 (HACCP). Work towards FSSC 22000 accreditation is at an advanced stage.