ASC Food Safety Consultants
Leading with Science. Ensuring Food Safety.
Find my pathway
Food safety is a ladder, not a shopping list. Each course, toolkit and audit has a place on it: a point where you start, something you become, and a next rung. This page maps the whole thing, so you can see exactly where you are and what comes after.
Question 1: what best describes you right now?
Question 2
The full map
Five levels. Each card tells you who starts there, what you walk away with, and which rung comes next. Nothing here assumes you already know the jargon.
Nobody may trade without this. If you are opening, or you have just been inspected, everything starts here, regardless of how big you are or what you make.
Licence · local authority
Where nextUnderstand R638→Train your handlers
Guidance · free to read
Where nextHygiene audit→Person in Charge
Course · online or onsite
Where nextBasic Food Safety Practices
Course · online, onsite, SETA option
Where nextPerson in Charge→GMP
Course · online
Where nextGet your CoA
Toolkit · TK11
Where nextHACCP & PRPs toolkit
Audit · onsite
Where nextPublic health consulting→HACCP
Consulting
Where nextBook a consultation
The law puts the duty on a named person, and good practice puts the discipline into the building. This is the level where a business stops relying on individuals remembering things.
Course · HPCSA or SETA accredited
Where nextIntroduction to HACCP→Hygiene audit
Course · onsite
Where nextImplementation of GMP
Course · online or onsite
Where nextHACCP→A GFSI standard
Course · SAIOSH accredited
Where nextPublic health consulting
Every certification scheme in the world sits on HACCP. Get this right and the standards above become paperwork; get it wrong and no toolkit will save you.
Course · online or onsite
Where nextHACCP for Supervisors
Course · HPCSA accredited
Where nextAdvanced HACCP
Course · HPCSA accredited
Where nextPick your standard→Internal auditing
Toolkit · SANS 10330 & 10049
Where nextGFSI Intermediate toolkit
Toolkit · TK09 / TK07 / TK08
Where nextA full GFSI standard
Audit · onsite
Where nextBuy the toolkit→Consulting
These are not better or worse than each other; they are demanded by different customers. Every route runs the same way: introduction course, toolkit, implementation course, internal audit, then the certification body.
Standard route · ISO 22000:2018
Where nextISO 22000 toolkit→Internal auditing
Standard route · FSSC 22000 V7
Where next7 sector toolkits→Transition & maintain
Standard route · Issue 9 / Issue 7
Where nextIssue 9 toolkit→Issue 7 toolkit
Standard route · IFA V6 & Chain of Custody
Where nextToolkits per add-on→SIZA
Toolkit · 7 sectors
Where nextHave us implement it
Consulting · with your team
Where nextKeep it alive→Book a consultation
Certificates are lost between audits, not during them. This level is the maintenance rhythm plus the specialist topics that certification eventually forces you to master.
Course · online or onsite
Where nextRoot cause analysis
Course · online
Where nextRisk assessment templates
Course · online
Where nextRead the background
Course · online
Where nextLabelling advisory
Courses · intro & advanced
Where nextShelf-life studies
Course · VACCP & TACCP
Where nextBackground reading
Course & advisory
Where nextLabelling claims course
Transition courses
Where nextUpdate your toolkit
Every pathway
Open the one that sounds like you. Each is written in the order you should do it, and skipping a step usually means paying for it twice.
For: restaurants, takeaways, cafés, delis, spaza shops, food trucks, home-based kitchens, caterers, tuck shops.
This is the legal one. In South Africa you may not handle food for the public without a valid CoA for your premises, issued by your local authority. It is not optional and it is not a formality. Premises get closed over it.
R638 is the regulation behind the CoA. It sets the rules for your premises, your equipment, your water and your waste, and it requires your food handlers to be trained. Read it once and most inspection surprises disappear.
Everyone who touches food needs basic food safety and hygiene training, and you need to be able to prove it. Online is fastest for one or two people; onsite makes more sense once you have a team.
The person responsible for the premises carries the duty. The Person in Charge course covers what you are legally accountable for, not just good practice.
A food hygiene audit tells you what an EHP would find, while you can still fix it quietly. You get a report and a list, not a closure notice.
For: anyone who has had an EHP visit, a compliance notice, a customer complaint, or a failed hygiene score.
An inspector reports what they saw on the day. An audit tells you everything that would have been found on a different day too.
Most notices trace back to a specific clause of R638 or a missing CoA. Knowing which one turns a vague instruction into a fixable task.
Untrained handlers are one of the most commonly cited findings, and one of the quickest to close. Online courses issue a certificate you can put in the file straight away.
If the findings are structural, or you have a deadline, our public health team will build and defend the plan with you.
For: manufacturers, packers, processors, packaging producers and growers whose buyer has made certification a condition of supply.
A gap audit measures you against the standard before you spend anything. It is the difference between a six-month project and an eighteen-month one.
Every standard demands a documented system. You can write it from scratch, or start from a toolkit built for your standard and your sector and edit it to fit.
Start with an introduction course so the team understands the standard, then an implementation course for whoever is building the system. Bundles group these and cost less than buying them separately.
Every standard requires internal audits, and your certification body will check that they are real. This is the step most first-time sites underestimate.
Our consultants implement the system with your team rather than handing you a folder. You still own it at the end, and that is the point.
For: anyone who has been told to “get the team trained” and does not know whether that means a course, a workshop, or a whole programme.
Online is per person and starts immediately. Virtual live is scheduled and interactive. Onsite brings a trainer to your premises and trains everyone at once. The comparison below covers the trade-offs.
Food handler, person in charge, supervisor, and implementer are different courses. Training a handler on an implementation course wastes their day and your money.
Bundles group the courses that belong together at a lower price. For teams, a manager dashboard lets you track who has completed what.
For: sites holding FSSC 22000, BRCGS, ISO 22000 or GLOBALG.A.P. certification who need to stay certified.
FSSC has moved to Version 7 and BRCGS Food Safety to Issue 9. Transition courses cover only what changed, so you are not paying to relearn the whole standard.
Toolkits are published per standard, per version and per sector, so you are updating rather than rewriting.
Systems fail surveillance audits on the parts that are supposed to run all year: internal audits, management review, verification, root cause.
For: manufacturers, private-label suppliers, exporters and anyone printing packaging.
Ingredient declarations, allergens, nutrition tables, date marking and country of origin all have rules, and they differ by market.
If you launch products often, training the team is cheaper than checking every label externally.
Most labelling failures are really allergen management failures that only became visible on the pack.
For: QA and technical people who already have a system and need depth in one area.
These are standalone courses. They assume you already know the basics and go straight to the practical application.
Some of these have a full explainer on this site before you commit to a course.
A recall, a positive result or a customer complaint is not a training problem yet. It is a technical one.
For: growers, packhouses, exporters and aquaculture and livestock producers.
GLOBALG.A.P. IFA covers production. Chain of Custody covers what happens to the product afterwards. SIZA covers ethical and social compliance. They are not interchangeable.
GLOBALG.A.P. toolkits are published per add-on (SPRING, Tesco NM, LEAF Marque, or all of them) because the add-on changes the requirements.
The three questions everyone asks
These are the decisions that stall people. Here they are side by side.
| Online, self-paced | Virtual, live | Onsite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | One or two people, or staff who start on different dates | A team spread across branches or provinces | A whole site, shift or department at once |
| When it happens | Immediately, as the course opens on payment | On a scheduled date with a live trainer | On a date we agree, at your premises |
| Priced by | Per person, per course | Per session | Per session, plus travel |
| Pace | Yours; stop and resume anytime | The group’s | The group’s |
| Questions answered | By email support | Live, during the session | Live, and on your own equipment |
| Certificate | Yes, downloadable on completion | Yes | Yes |
| Go here | Online course catalogue | Training calendar | Onsite training |
| Document toolkit | Consulting | Audit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | The full documented system, ready to edit | The system built with your team | An assessment and a report on where you stand |
| Who does the work | You | Us, with you. You keep ownership | Us. You act on the findings |
| Choose it when | You have the capacity and want to control cost | It is your first certification, or the deadline is tight | You need to know where you stand, before or after |
| Go here | All toolkits | FSMS consulting | Auditing services |
| Standard | Who asks for it | Toolkit | Training |
|---|---|---|---|
| R638 & CoA | South African law, every food premises | None | R638 · CoA |
| HACCP (SANS 10330) | Retailers, and the base of every other standard | HACCP & PRPs | HACCP courses |
| FSSC 22000 V7 | Manufacturers supplying major retailers and brands | 7 sector toolkits | FSSC courses |
| ISO 22000:2018 | Sites wanting an ISO management system | ISO 22000 toolkit | ISO 22000 courses |
| BRCGS | UK and EU retailers, and their local suppliers | Issue 9 · Issue 7 | BRCGS courses |
| GLOBALG.A.P. | Produce buyers and exporters | GLOBALG.A.P. toolkits | GLOBALG.A.P. courses |
| SIZA | Ethical and social compliance in agriculture | SIZA toolkit | Ask us |
Everything, in one place
Every service, every toolkit and every course we offer, across both the consulting side and the online training hub.
What South African law requires of any food premises.
Finding out where you actually stand.
Building the system with your team.
The documented system, ready to edit.
Published per sector, because the requirements differ.
Retail and agricultural schemes.
Start immediately, certificate on completion.
A trainer, your people, one session.
Background, legislation and definitions.
Still not sure
Tell us what you make or sell, who is asking you for what, and how many people need training. There is no charge for being told you don’t need something.
