Safeguarding your store, customers & staff

There’s an old adage in the supermarket and retail industry that compliance is the quiet engine that keeps it running. When it works, customers are free to shop, staff are empowered to perform and food moves safely from supplier to trolley. When it fails, the consequences are immediate and serious – foodborne illness, workplace injury, reputational damage and regulatory penalties. The stakes have never been clearer. In November 2024, South Africa classified foodborne illnesses as a national disaster under Section 23 of the Disaster Management Act.

The decision followed a devastating spike – over 890 incidents and at least 25 deaths, many of them children, reported since September. Between 2022 and 2024, the Notifiable Medical Conditions system recorded 437 foodborne outbreaks. In Cape Town, compliance testing revealed an 84.55% pass rate, meaning nearly one in six food samples failed safety standards. These aren’t abstract statistics. They represent genuine public health crises that puts retailers and wholesalers squarely in the spotlight.

Laws, standards and what retailers must know now

Regulations are the building blocks of everyday compliance. The Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act (54 of 1972) and Regulation R638 (22 June 2018), for example, set mandatory hygiene practices for food premises, equipment and transport. The HACCP Regulations (R908 of 2003) require Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point systems in certain establishments, setting rules for external auditing and certifying bodies. HACCP is a globally recognised, science-based system that identifies biological, chemical, and physical hazards in food production and establishes critical control points to manage those risks.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA, Act 85 of 1993) places a duty on employers to provide safe working environments. Section 8 requires employers to maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, workplaces that are safe and without risk to employee health. The Act underwent significant updates in March 2025, with new regulations covering physical agents, noise exposure, housekeeping, flooding precautions, fire safety and means of egress. Dharmarai Naicker, Business Manager: Health and Nutrition SA, SGS, emphasises that compliance extends beyond documentation. “Audits and certification against industry, national and international regulations bear increasing importance in today’s global business environment.”

Food safety in practice: From supplier to shelf

Food safety begins at supplier selection and continues through receiving, storage, preparation and display. In South Africa, compliance specialists such as AssureCloud create technology that revolutionises this chain through risk-based audit methodology, using live dashboards and real-time data to identify, assess and mitigate risks. This is consolidated with supplier selection processes from companies such as SGS, which provides comprehensive testing, auditing, and certification services covering microbiological analysis, food authenticity, nutrition testing and allergen testing. SGS’s Transparency One platform, for example, uses real-time data to monitor all suppliers, ingredients and facilities in the supply chain, helping manufacturers check supplier certification, reduce risk and respond quickly to potential crises.

Temperature monitoring and cold chain integrity

Continuous temperature logging with alarms for deviations represents best practice, supported by South African Health Products Regulatory Authority’s (SAHPRA) guidelines on cold chain monitoring that emphasise calibrated devices and monitoring at critical hot and cold spots. Torsten Harms, Head of Marketing at measurement technology specialists Testo South Africa, explains their approach For transport, Testo’s loggers monitor temperature during deliveries with simple ‘GO/STOP’ but tons and automatic PDF reports. “This gives full traceability from transport through storage and prep areas,” adds Harms. “All data is logged, time-stamped and accessible remotely, allowing complete cold chain transparency and faster audits.” AssureCloud’s certification scope includes cold chain verification from supplier to shelf, with temperature log audits featuring deviation alerts, storage condition assessments and traceability checks. SGS’s inspection services cover container inspections, loading supervision with temperature monitoring and cleanliness verification, with containers secured by SGS seals after loading to reduce substitution risk.

In-store preparation and HACCP implementation

It’s not enough to follow and test against compliance regulations. The real work happens on the ground, starting with in-store zoning protocols. For instance, retailers and wholesalers need to keep raw and ready-to-eat areas physically separated, maintain dedicated equipment for different zones and enforce colour-coding. Annette Devenish, Marketing Manager, Sani-touch, points out how printed, picture coded cloths help reduce training friction. HACCP implementation requires identifying critical control points for each food flow – cooking temperatures, chilling times, cooling rates – and ensuring that monitoring equipment, corrective action plans and records are in place. Testo’s Saveris Food system centralises quality checks, documentation and compliance audits. “It’s a digital food safety management system that enables real-time dashboard monitoring of hygiene tasks, fridge temperatures, and corrective actions, ensuring full traceability and reducing human error,” says Harms.

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