Your Sanitation Crew Sends You a Service Log. The Auditor Wants Verification.

I run an SQF-certified facility in Michigan. We contract sanitation, pest control, calibration, and equipment maintenance, like most certified sites. When the auditor asks for records, the gap is between what those vendors hand me and what an Edition 10 audit counts as evidence. SQFI has a new Food Safety Services Code in public comment through May 15, 2026, but that is about certifying vendors, not changing what your audit requires.

What you actually get when you ask vendors for records

The four service categories each fail the records request in their own specific way. I've pulled records in all four at the facility I run. Here's what comes back.

Sanitation

Ask your contracted sanitation crew for last shift's verification records and you'll get a service log: the time they arrived, the lines they cleaned, the chemicals they used. That's a service log. It isn't verification.

What counts as verification: the ATP swab result that confirmed the surface met spec. The visual inspection sign-off. The allergen verification swab tied to the changeover. Half the time those records live in the vendor's app, the other half on a clipboard nobody scanned. To pass an SQF Edition 10 audit, that verification evidence has to live somewhere your site can produce on demand.

Pest control

Your pest vendor will hand you device logs. Ask for the trend analysis at your stated cadence and the conversation gets quiet. A list of devices serviced is not a trend analysis. The trend analysis is your responsibility under Edition 10, and the auditor wants to see that someone at your site read the vendor data, found patterns, and acted on them.

This is where contracted relationships fall down hardest. The contract sounds like the vendor handles everything. Then the auditor asks who reviewed last quarter's trends and signed off. That ownership is exactly what falls through.

Testing and calibration

Calibration labs almost always send a certificate. Most certificates are missing the things SQF actually wants: the reference standard, the measurement uncertainty, the as-found condition. Without those, the certificate doesn't demonstrate metrological traceability under SQF or under ISO/IEC 17025.

Testing labs are the same story. A micro result with no method reference, no limit of detection, no chain of custody isn't documented evidence for your finished product testing program. It's a number on letterhead.

Equipment maintenance

Maintenance is the category where the work order and the actual equipment don't match. The vendor writes up the PM. You sign the work order. The auditor walks the line and finds the procedure doesn't reflect the food contact surface in front of them.

Lubricant compliance is the one I catch most. Contracted technician shows up, uses lube from his own truck that isn't on the approved chemical list, doesn't write the brand on the work order. Now you have a non-conformance that crosses prerequisite programs and the sanitation program, because allergen and chemical control verification depends on knowing every substance that touched a food contact surface.

What to do at your facility this week

Three questions. Run them this week. They're the same questions an SQF auditor will run at your next stage two:

1. Can your site produce, within an hour, the post-clean verification records for last shift's sanitation tied to the master sanitation schedule? If those records only live in the vendor's system, that's your gap.

2. Can your site produce the most recent trend analysis from your pest control program at your stated cadence, signed by the responsible person at your site? If the only trend documents come from the vendor, that's your gap.

3. Do your calibration and testing certificates include the reference standard, the measurement uncertainty, and the as-found condition? If your answer is "the vendor sends a certificate," check it against ISO/IEC 17025. If those elements are missing, that's your gap.

Three answers tell you where your contracts are weakest under SQF Edition 10 today.

A note on the SQF Food Safety Services Code

While we're on this topic: SQFI has a separate code in public comment through May 15, 2026. The SQF Food Safety Services Code is a draft framework that gives service providers, sanitation crews, pest control companies, calibration labs, equipment maintenance vendors, a path to be evaluated against SQFI expectations.

Two things to know.

First, the Services Code is targeted at the providers, not at your manufacturing site. It does not change what SQF Edition 10 requires of you. The four gaps above are yours to fix under Edition 10 today, regardless of where the Services Code lands. Edition 10 already requires you to manage contracted services through contracts, hazard analysis, prerequisite-program compliance, and a register of providers. None of that changes.

Second, operators are welcome to comment. The vendors who eventually pursue Services Code certification will have to meet the standard SQFI publishes, and SQFI is asking what that standard should look like. If you have a specific view on what a service-vendor certification should require, the comment window is the moment to say so. It's adjacent to your audit, not central to it, but useful if you want certified vendors to be a meaningful filter when you're evaluating who to contract.

How to submit public comment before May 15

Four steps:

1. Create or log into an SQFI account at sqfi.com.

2. Open the public comments section under "Comply with the Code."

3. Submit comments tied to specific provisions of the Services Code draft.

4. Cite operational examples where you can.

If you actually contract these services, your comments carry weight that an industry trade group's comments don't. Operator specificity is what the framework needs.

Frequently asked questions

What is the SQF Food Safety Services Code?

The SQF Food Safety Services Code is a new framework SQFI is developing that sets risk-based expectations for service providers whose work directly affects food safety, including sanitation, pest control, testing, calibration, and equipment maintenance. It is in public comment through May 15, 2026. The Code targets service providers themselves, not certified manufacturing sites.

Does the SQF Food Safety Services Code change what manufacturing sites have to do?

No. The Services Code is targeted at service providers. SQF Edition 10 already requires certified manufacturing sites to manage contracted services through contracts, hazard analysis, prerequisite-program compliance, monitoring, and a register of providers. Those obligations are unchanged.

When does the SQF Food Safety Services Code take effect?

SQFI has not announced an implementation date as of May 2026. The current phase is public comment, which closes May 15, 2026.

How is the SQF Food Safety Services Code different from SQF Edition 10?

SQF Edition 10 is the current edition of the Food Safety Code for Food Manufacturing, published in March 2026. The Services Code is a separate framework targeting service providers rather than certified manufacturing sites. The two operate in parallel.

How do I submit a public comment on the SQF Food Safety Services Code?

The SQFI public comment system requires an SQFI account and accepts submissions through May 15, 2026. Submit through the public comments section of the SQFI website under "Comply with the Code."

What records do auditors expect from contracted sanitation services?

Under SQF Edition 10, certified sites must maintain verification evidence (such as ATP swab results, visual inspection sign-offs, and allergen verification swabs tied to changeovers) that ties contracted sanitation work to the master sanitation schedule. A vendor service log alone, listing time arrived and lines cleaned, does not by itself satisfy that requirement.

What is the difference between a vendor service log and verification?

A service log records that work was performed: time, lines, chemicals. Verification confirms the work met the cleanliness or performance specification: ATP swab, visual inspection, allergen swab. SQF auditors look for verification evidence, not service logs alone.

What this comes down to

If you already keep your own verification records, your own pest trend analyses, your own as-found calibration files, and your own environmental monitoring program records, you're in shape under SQF Edition 10 today.

If you've been letting vendors hold the documentation, the gap is real today, before any new framework. Your auditor will already find it.

The Services Code may eventually give you a way to prefer vendors who carry SQFI-certified status, the way Storage and Distribution Code certification works for warehousing partners. That's later. The contracts and the records sit with you right now.

If you want a structured walk-through of how your contracted services hold up under Edition 10, book a demo and we'll go through your sanitation, pest, calibration, and maintenance evidence trail.