SALSA Plus Ice Cream Certification – Issue 1
HOW TO GET STARTED!
To start your journey to certification with the ICA and SALSA you are first required to be a member of both associations. If you are reading this in the magazine or on social media you are undoubtedly a member of the ICA already (or thinking about renewing your membership in the months ahead)! We are here to make the journey as easy as possible for you…let us guide you through the steps…
YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE ICA (STANDARD MEMBERSHIP PRICE OF £242) TO APPLY FOR SALSA PLUS ICE CREAM CERTIFICATION
STEP 1– Making the enquiry
You can either visit our new website where you will find a page where you can register your interest. This page will also give you access to download the SALSA plus Ice Cream Standard to ensure it’s a good fit for you and your business, OR, you can pick up the phone and speak to one of the team members at head office who will talk you through what’s involved and send you the SALSA plus Ice Cream standard for consideration. We will ask you a few questions to ensure you are eligible – these will include:
- Are you a Small/Micro (SME) business with a turnover of less than £10 million and have less than 50 members of staff?
- Do you operate from commercial (not domestic) premises?
- Do you have a HACCP plan in place?
- Have read or received the SALSA standard?
If you answer yes to the above, you will have started your path to certification!
STEP 2 – Joining the Scheme
If you are a member of SALSA and have undertaken SALSA audits in the past and wish to participate in the SALSA plus Ice Cream Standard, then you should book your next audit and renew your membership of SALSA through the ICA Head Office Team. Remember to also renew your ICA membership if required! If you are an ICA member but have never undertaken SALSA certification, contact the ICA Head Office Team to pay your audit subscription and start your journey. If, for whatever reason, you are not a member of the ICA or SALSA, then contact the Head Office Team to become a member of the ICA and pay for your SALSA plus Ice Cream audit subscription. Once we have received payment, we will ask you to register with the SALSA website (link available on our website). Once complete we will send you the SALSA plus Ice Cream Interpretation Guide to explain in detail what each section of the standard requires from you.
STEP 3 – Your Journey Begins
You can complete a self-assessment questionnaire to see how far away you are from being ready to undertake the audit. The ICA has developed a generic Quality Manual template which you can adapt to your business to make the journey toward your audit easier. This is available from the Head Office so please get in touch for this. You may also wish to purchase the ICA’s Industry Code of Practice to make procedures and principles clearer. Once you have paid your fees and completed your registration SALSA will contact you within a week to allocate you with an auditor and book a day for your audit, normally within 28 days but you are given up to a year from payment to arrange the audit whenever you think you are ready.
STEP 4 – Your Audit
Once you have the date of your audit, your allocated auditor will arrive and go through your procedures and check you are complying with each section of the audit. Nobody’s perfect…if you do have a few corrective actions from your audit you will have up to 3 months to correct them and demonstrate your compliance. You will then be sent your full audit report and a certificate. This will be published on the SALSA website. You will be issued with the full SALSA plus Ice Cream Logo pack to use in your correspondence, business marketing, social media as well as your premises!
STEP 5 – Keep it up!
Well Done! Just keep up the same level of compliance over the next year and re-book your annual audit with the ICA for the same time next year!