Vikan North America Employees Achieve SQF 8 Practitioner Qualifications

Vikan North America recently asked its business development managers to take the SQF practitioner qualification exam, after many hours of training spread across several months. Each employee passed on their first attempt and became qualified in the Safe Quality Food Institute’s eighth edition of their food code. Vikan trained our business development managers for the exam to improve their knowledge on the food safety and regulatory compliance challenges our customers deal with.

SQF version 8 is a recently updated globally recognized food safety management system that incorporates a quality component. The system is recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), and is used by retailers, manufacturers, and restaurants around the world to ensure the food they’re producing is safe and high-quality.

The training course, overseen by Education and Technical Support Manager Amit Kheradia, took place over 12 training sessions. The group focused on food and beverage manufacturing but touched on all SQF sections. Kheradia trained employees for the exam through a variety of workshops, webinars, quizzes, and practiced with our tools as examples.

SQF 8 Qualified Practitioners take an exam to prove they know the tenets of the SQF system so they can help their organization improve their food safety. Traditionally, these practitioners would be in charge of implementing food safety measures across a facility and keeping the entire premises compliant with SQF’s code.

Our employees took the exam so they could be of more help to customers during site visits. One of Vikan's company values is excellence, and the group wanted to learn even more about the regulatory and process challenges their customers face every day. Their hope is that by becoming qualified as SQF Practitioners, they’ll be able to pass along valuable knowledge and make better recommendations to our customers.