Yum! food safety supplier audits by DNV

The Yum! requirement

Yum! has introduced a requirement for all their suppliers to have 3rd party certification to one of the GFSI recognised food safety schemes or entry level schemes. The aim is to improve supplier management and ensure food safety in every link of the supply chain, minimising risks and strengthening quality assurance. DNV is a Yum! Partner Certification Body, who can offer the insight, certification and training services you need to meet the supplier requirement. With a global network of auditors and assessors, qualified for the applicable food safety schemes, DNV can support you at all stages of the journey to achieve the necessary third-party approval. Whether certification to the full food safety schemes or conformity assessments to entry level schemes, DNV can be your partner for. According to Yum!’s timeline, certification or assessment is required by:

• End of 2024 for all risk 1, 2 and 3A and 3B suppliers.
• End of 2026 for risk 3C suppliers.

How to get started?

The requirements have been communicated by Yum! to all suppliers. To be compliant, there are two options depending upon your YUM! risk categorisation and site maturity:

• Certification to the GFSI recognised food safety scheme.
• Global markets entry level scheme.

This is not that different from what you already know now. For companies just starting their food safety system journey, it may be opportune to start with the global markets entry level schemes.  However, thereafter, you should continually evaluate and consider to move to a full food safety scheme.

The different schemes

Suppliers must replace the YUM! food safety and distribution audits with certification to a GFSI recognised scheme. GFSI recognized food safety schemes:

• BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety
• IFS Food
• FSSC 22000
• SQF Code

To support suppliers on their journey to certification, YUM! have incorporated into their supplier management programme acceptance of the entry level programmes associated with the nominated GFSI recognized standards. Global markets entry level schemes:

• BRCGS START! - START! | BRCGS
• IFS Global Markets Foods IFS Database - IFS Global Markets Food version 3 is now released!
• FSSC Development Program - FSSC 22000 Development Program
• SQF Fundamental Program - SQF Fundamentals Program - Safe Quality Food Institute

Companies beginning their journey with the entry level programmes should continually evaluate when it is opportune to move to the full food safety scheme. If you are not sure where to start, DNV’s auditors are happy to help you evaluate what may be best for your food safety journey.

Your certification journey with DNV

Becoming certified is a process. Often it starts with a requirement from a customer and then continues from compliance to continual improvement. The journey starts long before you apply for certification.

At each stage of the process, DNV’s local project managers can support and guide your journey. Remember that you also have scheme owner documents and tools available in the YUM! library of documents available from the YUM! Supplier Resource Library accessible via TrueView by logging in and selecting Training > Resource Library.

The certification process takes time. When implementing a proper food safety system, there are no short-cuts. A thorough approach at the outset makes for an efficient certification process in the end. To meet the YUM! deadlines, it is advisable that you start planning now and can progress at a reasonable pace. This avoids a last-minute race against the deadline.

DNV currently works with over 6000 suppliers worldwide for their certification and assessment needs. We regularly offer insight and run informative webinars. And all our customers get free access to our digital platforms developed to support you before, during and after the audit.