SALSA is often a small producer's first proper food safety audit — the one that unlocks selling to retailers, wholesalers and foodservice. It has a reputation for being a paperwork mountain. It doesn't have to be. Here's what Issue 6 actually expects, in order.
What SALSA is, and who it's for
SALSA (Safe and Local Supplier Approval) is a UK food safety certification designed specifically for smaller producers — the businesses for whom a full BRCGS audit would be overkill. Passing it tells a buyer that an independent auditor has checked your food safety management and found it sound. For a lot of producers it's the key that opens the first big account.
Issue 6 is the current version of the standard. The structure follows the way a factory actually works: prerequisite controls, your HACCP plan, traceability, and the management systems that hold it together.
How the audit actually works
A SALSA audit is largely an evidence exercise. The auditor isn't looking for a perfect factory; they're looking for proof that you do what you say you do. That means records: training signed off, the cleaning rota completed, the calibration certificate on file, the complaint investigated and closed. The single biggest reason producers stumble isn't bad practice — it's good practice that was never written down.
If it isn't recorded, it didn't happen. Every control you operate needs a record that shows it was done, by whom, and when. Get the records right and most of SALSA takes care of itself.
The areas Issue 6 covers
Prerequisite controls (Section 1)
The foundations: a training procedure and training records for every member of staff; cleaning schedules that are planned and signed off; equipment calibration; pest control; and control of glass, hard plastic and foreign bodies. None of it is complicated — but it's a lot of small records that all have to be current on the day.
HACCP (Section 2)
Your hazard analysis: identifying critical control points, setting limits, monitoring them, and defining the corrective action when a limit isn't met. Issue 6 also wants verification that the system works, plus an annual review of your food safety management. A documented, in-date HACCP study sits at the heart of the whole audit.
Traceability & recall (Section 3)
This is where a lot of producers feel the pressure, and where Issue 6 is specific:
- Full traceability from raw material batch all the way to despatch — forwards and backwards.
- Traceability tested at least annually, with records kept. In practice that's a timed mock recall exercise.
- Notify SALSA within 3 working days of any genuine recall or withdrawal — so your incident procedure has to name who does this and how.
Complaints & corrective actions
Every complaint logged, investigated, linked back to the batch it relates to, and closed out with a corrective action. The auditor will pick one and follow the thread — so the links between complaint, batch and action need to actually exist.
The walk-in-ready checklist
Two weeks before your audit, you should be able to tick all of these:
- Current HACCP study, reviewed within the last 12 months.
- Training records for every member of staff, signed and dated.
- Cleaning schedules planned and signed off, with no gaps.
- In-date calibration certificates for scales, probes and metal detection.
- A completed mock recall from the last 12 months, with the timing recorded.
- An incident procedure that names who notifies SALSA, and within what window.
- Every complaint from the period logged, investigated and closed.
- Supplier approval records for your raw materials and packaging.
The bottom line
SALSA Issue 6 rewards organisation, not heroics. If your everyday controls each leave a dated record, and you've run one mock recall in the last year, you're most of the way there. The producers who find it painful are almost always the ones reconstructing a year of evidence the week before — so the real trick is capturing records as you go, not at audit time.
Walk into your audit ready.
See how Prodara keeps your SALSA evidence current, all year round.