Food Safety and Quality Auditor Certification (CFSQA)

American Society for Quality (ASQ)

Certification

A Certified Food Safety and Quality Auditor (CFSQA) is a credentialed professional trained to assess and improve food safety and quality systems. Specializing in HACCP based and process safety systems, food safety auditors review operations to ensure regulatory compliance, identify risks, and drive continuous improvement

Cost

Exam Fee $550 Retakes $350Show more

Format

Hybrid

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Program Pathways

Credentials this program stacks toward

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Program Details

Detailed information about this program

A Certified Food Safety and Quality Auditor (CFSQA) is a credentialed professional trained to assess and improve food safety and quality systems. Specializing in HACCP based and process safety systems, food safety auditors review operations to ensure regulatory compliance, identify risks, and drive continuous improvement

Requirements

What you need to earn this credential

Internship/Fieldwork/Practicum Requirements

5 Years of on-the-job experience in one or more of the areas of the Certified Food Safety and Quality Auditor Body of Knowledge. 1 Year of on-the-job experience must be in a "Decision-making" position. Candidates who have completed a degree from a college, university or technical school will have part of the five-year experience requirement waived, as follows (only one of these waivers may be claimed): Diploma from a technical or trade school — one year waived Associate degree — one year waived Bachelor's degree — three years waived Master's or doctorate — four years waived

Financial Aid

Eligible funding programs

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Scholarships

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What You'll Learn

Key competencies developed through this program

Auto-populatedfrom NSX Competency Framework

Mastery: developing (Level 2)(based on Certification)

Flavor and aroma profiling — conduct independent sensory evaluations of food and beverage samples, documenting deviations from flavor specifications and escalating out-of-spec results to quality supervisors.
Container integrity testing — independently operate measurement instruments to assess hardness, strength, and dimensional tolerance of packaging materials and record findings without direct oversight.
Regulatory recordkeeping — maintain organized, accurate testing logs and compliance documents required by state and federal governing agencies, applying agency-specific formatting standards.
Temperature control management — monitor, adjust, and document product temperatures across multiple production lines using automated sensors and control software in a processing plant.
Test result classification — analyze multi-variable test data, apply deductive reasoning to classify product batches against specification standards, and flag borderline results for supervisory review.
Microscopic examination — routinely examine chemical and biological samples to identify cell structures, detect microbial contamination, and note extraneous material with growing independence in a food laboratory.
Equipment calibration and maintenance — perform scheduled inspection, calibration, and minor repair of laboratory instruments to maintain measurement accuracy across routine testing workflows.
Technical report preparation — compile test results into structured graphs, charts, and written reports using spreadsheet and office suite software for distribution to quality assurance teams.
Quality control analysis — apply quality control principles to identify recurring testing anomalies, trace potential sources of variance, and communicate findings clearly to production staff.
Time and task coordination — manage daily testing schedules across concurrent sample sets, prioritizing tasks to meet production deadlines in a fast-paced food science environment.