Preparing for first SALSA approval: a practical owner/manager checklist

When we help a producer prepare for first SALSA approval, we want to see what happens to a real product. We follow it from ingredient receipt to dispatch and ask the people doing the work to show us the records. That tells us far more about readiness than a tidy folder viewed away from the production area.

We are not trying to catch staff out. We need to know whether the controls the business depends on can be explained, followed and evidenced on a normal working day. A small producer may have sensible practice that has never been written down. Another may have a polished procedure that the people on the line do not use. We would not give those two businesses the same action list.

SALSA's Food & Drink Production Standard is now at Issue 7 for audits from 1 September 2026. Use the current standard and its guidance for the actual requirements. The walk-through below is a practical way to organise preparation; it is not an alternative SALSA checklist or a promise of approval.

Follow one product, not a stack of documents

We start with a finished product the site makes regularly. We compare its specification with the ingredients, allergens, pack and process in use now. We pick an actual ingredient and ask for the supplier approval information the business would rely on if a question arose today. Then we trace the ingredient and finished batch through the records that show where the product went.

If that trace stops because a code is entered differently in two places, we have found something worth fixing. If the record exists but cannot be reached when the usual manager is away, we have found something else. We record the break, agree who will correct it and test the chain again. Adding a form that nobody will complete is not a useful answer.

We also ask for a recent occasion when something did not go to plan: a failed check, a supplier issue or another deviation relevant to that site. What happened to the product? Who made the decision? Where is the immediate action recorded, and who checked whether the longer-term change worked? A corrective action is not finished simply because a box has been ticked.

Finally, we speak to the people doing the checks. We ask what they would do if a result was outside the expected range and where they would record it. We compare that answer with the procedure and training evidence. If only the manager can explain the system, the business needs to know that before the assessment.

Turn findings into a preparation plan

Keep one action list. For each gap, record what is wrong, why it matters for your product, who will fix it, what evidence will show the fix and who will recheck it. Put issues that affect live control ahead of cosmetic document changes. If a control is working but poorly documented, preserve the practice and make the record usable. If the procedure exists but the practice is unreliable, rewriting the procedure alone will not solve it.

This is the work we do with a client preparing for SALSA: review products, processes, site practice and records against the relevant requirements, then agree a prioritised plan. We can help with the food safety system, putting controls into use with the team, checking evidence and following corrective actions through. The result should be proportionate to the business and maintainable after the assessment.

What to bring to a first conversation

If you are considering a first SALSA assessment, tell us what you make, who has asked for approval and what your team already does. Bring a product and process overview, current procedures, a few real records and any recent findings. If much of the system is informal, say so. We can start there.