SMETA and social compliance, evidenced from the floor up.
Labour, health and safety, environment and business ethics records for Sedex SMETA, SIZA and retailer ethical audits, in the same system as your food safety.
The ASCloud SMETA and social compliance module holds the evidence a Sedex SMETA auditor asks for across the four pillars, labour standards, health and safety, environment and business ethics, beside your food safety records. It also serves SIZA and retailer ethical programmes. Sedex reports 120,000 or more site visits in 2024 and that around 70 percent of SMETA audits are now 4-pillar. The module is scoped and priced per site.
Why buyers ask for it
Retailers and brand owners in the United Kingdom, Europe and South Africa ask their suppliers for a SMETA audit through Sedex before or alongside food safety certification. The audit looks at how workers are treated, not how the product is made, and the evidence lives in HR, payroll, safety and environmental files that are rarely kept together. ASCloud keeps them together and dated.
What the module holds, pillar by pillar
- Labour standards: contracts, working hours and overtime records, wage evidence, age verification, grievance and disciplinary logs, worker representation
- Health and safety: risk assessments, inspections, incident and injury registers, PPE issue, fire and emergency drills, contractor control (shared with the ISO 45001 module)
- Environment: permits, waste, water and energy records, chemical storage (shared with the ISO 14001 module)
- Business ethics: anti-bribery and gifts policies, supplier codes of conduct, whistleblowing channels, training records
- Management Systems Assessment: the policies and procedures SMETA 7 reviews, version controlled and read-and-signed
SMETA 7 and Collaborative Action Required
SMETA 7 added a Management Systems Assessment and a Collaborative Action Required category for issues a site cannot close alone, such as buyer-driven overtime. ASCloud tracks both the site's own corrective actions and the collaborative ones, with the evidence of what the site did and when.
Sources: Sedex, SMETA audit (pillars, 120,000+ site visits in 2024, around 70 percent 4-pillar). LRQA, SMETA 7 changes. SMETA is a Sedex methodology and ASCloud is not affiliated with Sedex.
Questions we get asked
What is a SMETA audit?
SMETA, the Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit, is the ethical trade audit methodology run through the Sedex platform. A 2-pillar SMETA covers labour standards and health and safety. A 4-pillar SMETA adds environment and business ethics, and Sedex reports that around 70 percent of SMETA audits are now 4-pillar.
What changed in SMETA 7?
SMETA 7 is the largest overhaul in the methodology's 20-year history. It adds a Management Systems Assessment of a site's policies, procedures and practices, a Collaborative Action Required category for issues a site cannot fix alone, stronger environment and business ethics assessment, and digital reporting.
Does ASCloud replace Sedex?
No. Sedex is the platform buyers use to request and receive SMETA audits. ASCloud holds the evidence the auditor asks for on site, so wage records, working hours, training, health and safety inspections, grievance logs, environmental monitoring and ethics policies are found in one search rather than a week of collation.
Does the module cover SIZA and retailer ethical audits?
Yes. SIZA is already part of the Primary plan for farms and packhouses. The social compliance module holds the same labour, health and safety and environmental evidence for SMETA, SIZA and retailer ethical programmes, and maps each record to the requirements it serves.
What does the module cost?
It is scoped and priced per site, because the number of workers, shifts and contractors drives the work. Your written quote fixes the figure before activation.
Ready for the ethical audit, not just the food safety one.
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Reviewed by Mthokozisi Nkosi, FSSC 22000 and BRCGS Lead Auditor and founder of ASC Food Safety Consultants. Updated 3 October 2026.
The record exists. Now it can be found.
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