FSSC 22000 V7 Transition Deadline: How to Find Your Real Upgrade Date

Your real Version 7 deadline is the first FSSC 22000 audit you have on or after 1 May 2027. That audit, whether it is a surveillance or a recertification, will be your upgrade audit: a full audit against Version 7, with no extra day added for the upgrade unless your certification body decides one is needed.

The upgrade window runs to 30 April 2028, and plenty of people read that as the deadline. It is only the last day an upgrade audit can happen. A site with a surveillance audit due in May 2027 has almost a year less than it thinks.

Our free Version 7 Upgrade Handbook has a fill in version of the plan below that works back from your audit date.

Which of your audits is your transition deadline?

Find your last audit report and certificate and read off the dates. Then use this table, built from the Foundation’s Version 7 Upgrade Process and Version 7 FAQ.

Your next audit	Version	What it means
Surveillance or recertification on or before 30 April 2027	Version 6	Prepare now. The audit after this one is your upgrade.
Surveillance on or after 1 May 2027	Version 7, full upgrade audit	The certificate keeps its Version 6 expiry date and is reissued showing Version 7.
Recertification on or after 1 May 2027	Version 7, full upgrade audit	A new three year cycle starts as normal.
Unannounced audit due in the window	Version 7, unannounced	Your upgrade audit can be the unannounced one. Plan as if it is.
First certification, Stage 1 before and Stage 2 after 1 May 2027	Stage 1 to Version 6, Stage 2 to Version 7	Both stages can also be done to Version 7 once the window opens.
Remote plus on site (ICT) audit in the window	Version 7 for both parts	One audit cannot mix scheme versions.

If your three yearly unannounced audit is due in the window, the certification body can choose the day, so count back from 1 May 2027 rather than from your usual audit month. Every site has to be upgraded inside the window, and certification bodies must finish all upgrades by 30 June 2028, so if your cycle would otherwise put your first Version 7 audit later than 30 April 2028, expect your certification body to schedule it earlier.

You cannot ask for a stand alone upgrade audit, and you cannot skip a surveillance audit by bringing recertification forward. Version 7 also says that recertifying more than six months before expiry starts a new three year cycle, which shortens the certificate you already paid for.

What does the auditor check at a Version 7 upgrade audit?

Everything. An upgrade audit is a full audit against ISO 22000:2018, the new ISO 22002 prerequisite programme standards for your category, and all eighteen FSSC additional requirements as Version 7 words them. In practice the auditor spends extra time where the wording moved, because that is where a Version 6 system shows its age.

Start with the prerequisite programmes. Your procedures and HACCP study should point to ISO 22002-100:2025 and your sector part, and the programme should cover what the new standards cover, not only what the old ISO/TS document did. Our ISO 22002-100:2025 guide shows how to run that gap assessment. Then expect questions on laboratory competence under 2.5.1: how you know each lab that tests a food safety parameter is competent, whether through accreditation for that method, proficiency testing results or regulatory approval, and for an in house lab the method validation, calibration and analyst training behind it.

The auditor will ask who did your food defence and food fraud assessments and how they learned to do them (2.5.3 and 2.5.4). On culture (2.5.8) they will look for the resources behind the plan and for commitment they can see from operators, not only managers. For food loss and waste (2.5.16) they want a baseline, measurable targets with dates, and controls on donations and surplus going to animal feed.

Product development files get sampled too. For BIII, C, D and K, the auditor may pick a recent new or changed product and ask for the trials that validated it and your ongoing shelf life verification schedule (2.5.13). If you make ready to cook products, have the data behind the cooking instructions. If you design primary packaging, show how you considered the four packaging design principles, and if you print labels or materials yourself, show your artwork and print control procedure (2.5.2).

Our page on what changed in Version 7 sets each of these out with the scheme wording.

A plan that works back from your audit date

Count back from the month of your upgrade audit. The plan below assumes a medium food manufacturer with a working Version 6 system and a food safety team that meets weekly. A small site with one QA person should allow ten to twelve months.

Months before the audit	What gets done	Who
9	Confirm with the certification body which audit is the upgrade, whether it may be unannounced, and the recalculated audit time. Buy ISO 22002-100:2025 and your sector part.	QA manager
8	Train the food safety team on the changes, for example with our Transition course at R1,450. Train the person who will rebuild documents in full, for example with the Implementation course at R5,500.	Food safety team
7 to 6	Gap assessment: every changed requirement, then a clause by clause read of Part 100 against your PRP programme. Rank gaps by risk and effort.	Food safety team leader
6 to 4	Rewrite procedures and records. Check each lab’s competence evidence, write the packaging design and artwork procedures where they apply, and set food loss and waste targets.	Process owners
4 to 3	Run the changed programmes and start collecting records. Brief supervisors and operators on what changed for them.	Supervisors
3 to 2	Full internal audit against Version 7, done by someone who did not write the documents.	Internal auditors or an outside auditor
2 to 1	Close findings with root cause. Management review with the upgrade on the agenda. Check the latest Board of Stakeholders decision list.	Senior management
Audit month	Keep production running normally. The audit starts on the floor.	Everyone

Records are the part people underestimate. An auditor will sample, so a programme that started the week before the audit has nothing to sample. In our audit experience three months of records is a fair minimum for anything new. That is practice, not a scheme rule.

A worked example

Take a sauce and condiment manufacturer in KwaZulu-Natal, 140 staff, three HACCP studies, category CIV, last recertified in August 2025. Its surveillance audits fall in August 2026 and August 2027. The August 2026 audit was a Version 6 audit. The August 2027 surveillance is its upgrade audit, so its real deadline is August 2027, not April 2028. Because it is a surveillance upgrade, the certificate keeps its August 2028 expiry.

Working back nine months puts the start in November 2026, so a site like this needs to start next month. With three HACCP studies the FSSC time added to its audit is 1.5 days, and Version 7 allows no reductions to the calculated time.

Its cold filled sauces preserved by acidity and preservatives most likely sit in the new sub(sub)category CIV-3, preserved or self-preserved foods. A hot filled or pasteurised line could fall under CIV-1 instead, so it should confirm its sub(sub)category with the certification body and ask whether its regular auditor is requalified for it. For a sauce maker, the laboratory work behind 2.5.1 is usually pH, acidity, water activity or Brix and preservative levels, the measurements that show the preservation system works, plus its shelf life studies.

Where sites lose time

The first is waiting for the certification body to call. Some have already been in touch and some will call late, so phone yours. The second is treating the new PRP standards as a find and replace of document references. ISO 22002-100 reorganises the requirements, so read it against what you actually do.

The third is rewriting everything. Most of ISO 22000 and most of the additional requirements did not change, so spend the effort where the text moved. Leaving training until the documents are done is another, because the people who own each programme need to know what changed before they rewrite it. And many sites forget the upgrade audit may be unannounced. A system that only looks right on a planned day is a risk, which our unannounced audit readiness guide deals with.

Not sure where you stand? The two minute Version 7 readiness quiz is a quick first check. Our internal food safety audits can be done against the full Version 7 scheme if you would rather have someone outside the business audit you, and a gap audit is a faster first look if you have not started. For the paperwork, the Version 7 document toolkits give you templates to adapt.

Get the team ready

For most sites the right mix is the Transition course at R1,450 for the food safety team and the Implementation course at R5,500 for whoever rebuilds the system, or the course written for your category if you are not a food manufacturer. Each module ends with a knowledge check, each course has a graded final assessment, and you receive a certificate when you pass. The two page course brochure lists every FSSC 22000 Version 7 course with prices.

Our online courses hold a 4.9 average from 2,550 course reviews and more than 7,100 enrolments. ASC is a SAATCA registered online training course provider (TC 065) and FoodBev SETA Accredited Provider No. 587/00337/1900.

ASC is rated 4.9 out of 5 from more than 400 Google reviews across our three offices (read them for Gqeberha, Johannesburg, Cape Town). Our online courses hold a 4.9 average from 2,550 course reviews and more than 7,100 enrolments. ASC is ISO 9001 certified, a SAATCA registered online training course provider (TC 065), FoodBev SETA Accredited Provider No. 587/00337/1900 and an Exemplar Global Recognized Training Provider.

Questions South African sites ask about Version 7

Can we be audited to Version 7 before May 2027?

No. Every audit up to 30 April 2027 is a Version 6 audit. Upgrade audits start on 1 May 2027.

Is extra audit time added for the upgrade?

The Foundation does not add any. Your certification body recalculates your audit time under the Version 7 formula and may add time if it sees a need, so ask for the calculation in writing.

What if our upgrade audit raises a major nonconformity?

The scheme rules apply as at any audit. A major nonconformity must be closed within 28 calendar days of the last day of the audit or the certificate is suspended, and a critical nonconformity leads to suspension within three working days. The certificate is only reissued to Version 7 once the upgrade is successfully completed.

We are not certified yet. Should we wait for Version 7?

If your Stage 2 will fall on or after 1 May 2027, build to Version 7 now. If you need a certificate sooner, certify to Version 6 and plan the upgrade at your first surveillance in the window.