Food loss and waste · FSSC 22000 clause 2.5.16
Online Food Loss and Waste Training for Food Manufacturers
FSSC 22000 additional requirement 2.5.16 asks a certified site to measure food loss and waste and prove it is coming down. Four online courses take you the whole way: the line staff who classify it, the manager who measures it, the programme owner who turns that number into money found, and the manager who builds the ISO 20001:2026 management system around it.
ONE SHIFT, ONE LINE
Vegetable freezing plant, Tzaneen · the course case study
packaging, marginthe rest
Every figure on this ticket is worked out, line by line, inside the courses.
Sources: CSIR, WWF South Africa, UNEP Food Waste Index 2024, FAO.
What a lost kilogram really costs
The skip invoice is the tip.
A butternut trimmed past specification, a pallet downgraded in the cold room, a batch held too long: each one is raw material bought, received, chilled, cut and paid for, and then never sold. The disposal bill is the only part of that cost most sites ever see.
On the worked production day inside these courses, the skip invoice accounted for about five percent of what the lost food actually cost. The Reducing course shows you how to cost a lost kilogram properly, rank the hotspots by value not weight, and write the one page business case that gets the fix funded.
Where every stream should land
Move material up the ladder, and prove it.
Not every tonne is equally bad. Prevention sits at the top, then feeding people, then feeding animals, and disposal to landfill or sewer at the bottom. A site that measures food loss and waste is expected to place every stream on this hierarchy and show material moving up it over time.
Donation and animal feed are where good intentions become audit findings. Clause 2.5.16 expects surplus routed to people or animals to stay safe, controlled and traceable, and the Reducing course ends with controls that survive a mock recall.
The programme
Four courses, in the order the work actually happens.
Food Loss and Waste Essentials
Operators, peelers, trimmers, packers, supervisors, warehouse, dispatch and hygiene staff.
- 19 short lessons, all on a phone
- 36 diagrams, five short animations, 11 timed games
- Sort anything into still food, thrown away, or never food
- The training evidence a site files against 2.5.16
Measuring Food Loss and Waste
QA and technical managers, FSMS implementers and production managers who own the number.
- 21 lessons, 44 diagrams, 48 worked calculations
- Seven tools, including a mass balance and unit converter
- Scope, method, stage and cumulative yield, line by line
- A workshop that builds a real, defensible baseline
Reducing Food Loss and Waste
Programme owners and sustainability officers who have a number and now have to move it.
- 25 lessons, 51 diagrams, 52 worked calculations
- Hotspots, root cause and the true cost of a kilogram
- A policy and objectives register with a defensible base year
- Donation and animal feed controls that survive a mock recall
Implementing ISO 20001:2026
QA, technical, production and sustainability managers, FSMS implementers and food bank managers who have to put a system around the number.
- 31 lessons, 29 diagrams, all on a phone
- Scope, policy, objectives, audit, review and corrective action
- A gap assessment tool that scores 28 items and exports to xlsx
- A workshop that ends in a dated implementation plan
From a pledge to a clause
Food loss and waste moved from a sustainability report into your audit.
SDG 12.3 set the goal of halving food waste by 2030. The Food Loss and Waste Standard gave it a method, retailer pledges gave it pressure, and FSSC 22000 made it auditable. South Africa’s Food Loss and Waste Voluntary Agreement, launched by the Consumer Goods Council in 2020, commits signatories to the same Target, Measure, Act approach. The auditor now asks where your number came from.
A policy, base year and objectives
With a prevention plan behind them, and a metric that cannot be met by selling less.
Trained people
Staff who classify and record at the station. The course certificate is the training record.
Controlled donation and feed
Surplus that stays safe and traceable when it goes to people or animals.
Monitoring and records
A number the file can explain: scope, method, mass balance and trend.
Free, from inside the courses
Sixteen working tools. Use them on your own line today.
The same calculators and builders learners use in the courses, free to try before you enrol.
Classify
The classifierLoss, waste or never foodThree binsSort the shiftRank the hierarchyWhere each stream belongsUnit converterVolume, density and count to weightMeasure
Method selectorMatch the method to your dataProcess walkStage by stage loss recorderMass balanceFind the unexplained lossYield calculatorStage and cumulative yieldDry matterAchievable yieldWhich course do I need?
Start where the number starts.
Most sites roll Essentials out to the floor and put the QA or technical manager on the other three. Five or more learners? Ask for a team rate and one invoice.
Read first
Nine practitioner guides, free.
A policy and objectives that pass an audit
Can you donate surplus food safely?
ISO 20001:2026, read before Course 4
Questions people ask
Before you enrol.
Still unsure which course fits? A person answers WhatsApp during office hours. ASC is rated 4.9 on Google from 366 reviews: Randburg, Gqeberha, Cape Town.
Which certification scheme requires a site to measure food loss and waste?
FSSC 22000 additional requirement 2.5.16 is currently the only GFSI benchmarked scheme requirement written specifically around measuring and reducing food loss and waste. BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 clauses 4.12 and 4.13 and SQF clause 11.8 deal with waste handling as part of their prerequisite programme and environmental sections, which these courses also cover, but 2.5.16 is the clause that asks for a policy, a base year, objectives, training and controls on surplus.
What is ISO 20001:2026, and how does it relate to these courses?
ISO 20001:2026 is the international management system standard for food loss and waste, published by ISO on 29 September 2026. It applies to any organisation in the food supply chain and is built on the same Harmonized Structure as ISO 22000. Courses 1 to 3 build the content of a food loss and waste programme: trained staff, a measured baseline, objectives and safe routes for surplus. Course 4, Implementing ISO 20001:2026 Food Loss and Waste Management Systems, builds the management system around that work: scope, interested parties, policy, roles, objectives with plans, communication along the supply chain, contractor verification, internal audit, management review and corrective action. ISO 20001 does not replace FSSC 22000 clause 2.5.16, and meeting one does not mean you meet the other. They overlap heavily, and Course 4 shows where they meet.
Can we be certified to ISO 20001 in South Africa yet?
The standard allows certification by an external body or a self-declaration of conformity. ISO 20020, the requirements for bodies that audit and certify food loss and waste management systems, is still a draft. Check with SANAS and your certification body whether accredited ISO 20001 certification is available before you pay for it. A self-assessment backed by an internal audit and a management review is a credible step today. Course 4 ends in a scored ISO 20001 gap assessment and a dated implementation plan, which is where that self-assessment starts.
Which of the four courses do we need?
If your line staff cannot classify what comes off their station, start with Food Loss and Waste Essentials, because every number above them depends on it. If you need a defensible figure, take Measuring Food Loss and Waste. If you have a measured baseline and now need to reduce it, fund the interventions and pass an audit on the policy and objectives, take Reducing Food Loss and Waste for Sustainable Manufacturing. If you need to put a management system around that work, or a customer asks whether your site plans to align with ISO 20001, take Implementing ISO 20001:2026 Food Loss and Waste Management Systems. Most sites roll Essentials out to the floor and put the QA or technical manager who owns the objective on the other three.
Do we have to do the courses in order?
No. Each course defines its own terms and stands alone. The order reflects how the work happens on a site, and Course 2 is recommended before Course 3 because reduction starts from a measured baseline, but neither is a formal prerequisite. Course 4 has no formal prerequisite either. It assumes you can classify and measure food loss and waste, and its Module 6 recaps the measurement method.
Do learners need to work at a factory to complete the activities?
No. Every activity, case pack and workshop is written to be completed on the course case study, a vegetable freezing plant in Tzaneen, so a learner can finish the whole programme without an employer. The workshops in Courses 2 and 3 also work on your own site data if you would rather build a real baseline as you go.
Does this apply outside South Africa?
Yes. Clause 2.5.16 applies to FSSC 22000 certified sites in every country, and the measurement method follows the international Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard and the Target, Measure, Act approach behind SDG 12.3. The South African figures and the case study plant are local, the courses are in English, and prices are in South African rand.
How long does the programme take, and how is it delivered?
About twenty-eight hours in total: five for Essentials, seven for Measuring, eight for Reducing and eight for the ISO 20001 course, including the quizzes and workshops. Everything is online, self paced and works on a phone, so learners can stop and continue later without losing a production day.
Is there a certificate, and does it count as audit evidence?
Everyone who passes every quiz and the final assessment at 70 percent receives a Certificate of Achievement with a QR code and a verification ID that anyone can check online. Clause 2.5.16 asks for personnel to be trained on food loss and waste, so the certificate and the training record behind it are the evidence a site files against that part of the requirement.
What does the programme cost, and are there team rates?
Food Loss and Waste Essentials is R630 per learner on the current special, normally R899. Measuring Food Loss and Waste is R1 190, normally R1 695. Reducing Food Loss and Waste for Sustainable Manufacturing is R1 400, normally R1 995. All three as a bundle cost R2 415 instead of R3 220. Implementing ISO 20001:2026 Food Loss and Waste Management Systems is R1 795 until 31 December 2026, then R2 495. All four as a bundle, the full programme, cost R3 760 instead of R5 015. No VAT is charged, so the price shown is the price paid. For five or more learners, contact ASC for a team rate and one invoice.
Who writes the courses
Built from what an auditor sees on site, not from a textbook.
Written by Mthokozisi Nkosi, founder of ASC, a food scientist and a registered Lead Auditor with Exemplar Global and IRCA, with ASC trainers and international subject experts. The worked production day, the calculations and the failure modes come from the food safety management systems he audits for a living.
Find the money in your skip.
Essentials R630, Measuring R1 190, Reducing R1 400, or all three for R2 415. Add the ISO 20001 course at R1 795, or take all four for R3 760. FoodBev SETA accredited provider 587/00337/1900 and SAATCA TC 065, with QR verified certificates.