FS60 series · Foundation to Advanced · Online
Food quality control training, from the receiving dock to the QA supervisor’s desk
Three self-paced online courses that teach South African quality controllers, QC inspectors and QA supervisors to check food against the limits the law actually sets, make the call, and keep records that stand up to an audit.
4.9 from 2 300+ reviews across ASC courses · 6 700+ enrolments
- 3courses, Levels 1 to 3
- 56 hof self-paced learning
- 24narrated lesson videos
- 9practice tools, 5 free
Three courses. Start where your job is.
Course 1 is the store and distribution centre, Course 2 the factory line, Course 3 the supervisor who plans and proves it all. Each stands on its own, and each builds on the one before.
FS60-0601 · Course 1 of 3
Food Quality Controller Fundamentals: Retail, DC and Wholesale
For supermarket, DC, cash and carry and wholesaler quality controllers.
- R638 core and surface limits, probing and power cuts
- Dock checks and accept, hold or reject calls you can defend
- Date marks, the shelf walk, labels and allergen questions under R146
- The first hour of a store recall and EHP readiness
FS60-0602 · Course 2 of 3
QC Inspector Course for Food and Beverage Manufacturing
For line and lab QC inspectors in food and beverage plants.
- Specifications, AQL plans under ISO 2859-1:2026 and micro reports
- Calibration, SANS 458 average-quantity rules and X-bar/R charts
- Line clearance, labels, metal detection, X-ray and seals
- Holds, positive release, rework and CCP records
FS60-0603 · Course 3 of 3
QC/QA Supervisor Course for Food Manufacturing (with Introduction to HACCP)
For new and aspiring QC and QA supervisors.
- Shift cover, skills matrices and a risk-based verification schedule
- HACCP for the supervisor: reading a plan and verifying CCPs
- KPIs, complaints per million on a u-chart and a one-page QA report
- CAPA, recalls under SA law, supplier audits and FSSC 22000 V7
What is food quality control training?
Food quality control training teaches the people who check food, at a receiving dock, on a shelf or on a production line, to measure it against a legal or specified limit, decide to accept, hold or reject it, and record the evidence. QA supervisors learn to plan and verify those checks as a system.
In South Africa the limits come from R638 (hygiene and temperatures), R146 (labels, dates and allergens) and the Legal Metrology Regulations (weights). HACCP is required by law for a few sectors and by customers for most others. Anyone who signs a check sheet needs to know where each number comes from.
- Provider
- ASC Food Safety Training, FoodBev SETA accredited (587/00337/1900)
- Levels
- Foundation (retail and DC), Intermediate (factory QC), Advanced (QC/QA supervisor)
- Time
- About 15, 20 and 21 hours, self-paced on any phone
- Price
- R1 750, R2 950 and R3 950; all three R6 488. No VAT charged
- Assessment
- Video-proctored final exam; 70 % to 75 % to pass; two attempts
- Certificate
- QR-verified Certificate of Achievement (non-credit-bearing short course)
- Law covered
- R638 of 2018, R146 of 2010, R908/R607, GN R877 of 2018, CPA recalls
- Last reviewed
- 1
Learn
Short lessons on your phone, with a narrated video in every module and a transcript.
- 2
Practise
A scenario game, a knowledge check and a practical with a model answer in every module.
- 3
Prove it
A closed-book, video-proctored final. Try the practice final and the proctoring test drive first.
- 4
Show it
A Certificate of Achievement with a QR code anyone can scan to confirm it is genuine.
Which course should I take?
Answer three questions for a recommended route. No food job yet? Start with Course 1: every practical has a case-study version with all the data on the page.
Your route
Answer the three questions and your recommended course appears here.
| If you are | Start here | Then |
|---|---|---|
| A new retail or DC quality controller, store food safety champion or person in charge | Course 1 | R638 training if you are the named person in charge |
| A DC or retail QC team leader | Course 1 | Course 3: its trend dashboard carries a DC dataset |
| A retail own-label or supplier technologist | Course 1, then Course 2 | Course 3 for supplier approval and audits |
| A factory QC inspector or lab assistant with 12 months or more in food | Course 2 | Food Safety Inspections and Audit Readiness; Course 3 on promotion |
| A production team leader who signs QC checks | Course 2 | Introduction to HACCP |
| A new or aspiring QC/QA supervisor in a factory | Course 3 (Course 2 first with under 2 years in QC) | HACCP for Supervisors and HACCP Teams; Root Cause Analysis |
Watch a lesson before you spend anything
Narrated module videos from the courses themselves, one from each level. Every video has a transcript in its lesson.
Nine practice tools, five of them free
Each tool runs in your browser, comes loaded with the course case study, and exports a record you can print or keep as a spreadsheet.
Receiving Inspection Simulator
Triage 12 deliveries, probe, read reefer print-outs and make accept, hold or reject calls.
Open the free tool Free to tryShelf and Date-Code Walk
Walk five bays and flag use-by, best-before, batch-code, can and allergen problems.
Open the free tool Free to tryPower Interruption Decision Tool
After a power cut, decide sell, move, hold or destroy from core and surface readings.
Open the free tool Free to tryAQL Sampling Plan Calculator
Sample size, accept and reject numbers, and the OC curve for your plan under ISO 2859-1:2026.
Open the free tool Free to tryNet Content and Weight Control Calculator
T, T1 and T2, the three average-quantity rules and a fill target that keeps a lot legal.
Open the free tool Included in Course 2Line QC Check Sheet Builder
Frequencies, limits, action on failure and a challenge test for every reject device.
See Course 2 Included in Course 3QC Verification Schedule Builder
Maps every PRP, OPRP and CCP to its verification, frequency, owner and record.
See Course 3 Included in Course 3Supervisor Trend Dashboard
Monthly KPIs, complaints per million on a u-chart, Pareto and capability by filler head.
See Course 3 Included in Course 3Mock Recall Workbench
A timed mock recall: trace back and forward, reconcile every unit, draft the notice.
See Course 3What does South African law require of a food quality controller?
Five pieces of law decide most QC calls in a South African store, DC or factory: R638 for temperatures and records, R146 for allergens and date marks, R908 for HACCP, the Consumer Protection Act for recalls, and the Legal Metrology Regulations for weights. The courses teach each one in full; this is the short version, with the source you can quote.
| Area | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | Core no warmer than 4 °C for raw fish, shellfish, edible offal, poultry meat and milk, and 5 °C for other chilled perishables; no warmer than −12 °C for frozen food and −18 °C for ice cream and sorbet; hot food at least 60 °C. The surface may be at most 2 °C beyond the core limit. | R638 of 2018, reg 8(4) and Annexure E |
| Exemptions | (i) Perishable food sold directly to a consumer within four hours of being processed or prepared; (ii) venison, for up to eight hours after the animal was killed; (iii) whole freshly caught or harvested raw fish, molluscs or crustaceans, or raw meat, for up to one hour during delivery, provided the surface does not exceed 25 °C. | R638 reg 8(4)(b) |
| Records | Processing, production and distribution records kept for at least 6 months after the product's shelf life. Any incident that triggers a recall is reported to the local inspector and the National Directorate: Food Control. | R638 reg 10(16) and 10(18) |
| Allergens | Common allergens: egg, cow's milk, crustaceans and molluscs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, tree nuts and significant cereals (wheat, rye, barley, oats and their hybrids), declared in brackets after the ingredient and/or in a “Contains:” statement. For unwrapped bread, raw-processed meats, ready-to-eat food made and sold on site and flour confectionery, ingredient and allergen information must be available at the point of sale on request. | R146 of 2010, reg 1, reg 43 and reg 54(3) |
| Date marks | “Best before” and/or “use by” and/or “sell by”, depending on the product. “BB” is the only permitted abbreviation, numeric dates run Day-Month-Year, and no one may remove or alter a date mark. | R146 reg 12 |
| HACCP | A certified HACCP system is mandatory only for the sectors in Annex B: processors of ready-to-eat heat-treated meat and poultry products (SANS 885), and groundnut processors. Certification by a SANAS-accredited body, on the Codex principles. | R908 of 2003, as amended by R1060 of 2009 and R607 of 2018 |
| Recalls | Notify the National Consumer Commission in writing, preferably before the recall starts and in any case within two days of starting it. The NCC can require a producer or importer to recall goods it has reasonable grounds to believe are unsafe. | NCC Recall Guidelines, Notice 490 of 2012; CPA s60(2) |
| Weights | The lot's mean is at least the nominal quantity; no more than 2.5 % of packs are short by more than T; no pack is short by more than 2T. The “e” mark is for registered companies only. | GN R877 of 2018, regs 31–32 and 35; SANS 458; SANS 1841 |
Standards on top of the law: ISO 2859-1:2026 (third edition, 22 January 2026) for attribute sampling; FSSC 22000 Version 7, with Version 6 audits allowed up to 30 April 2027 and upgrade audits from 1 May 2027 to 30 April 2028. Status as of September 2026. For the groundnut entry in Annex B, check with your EHP or certification body whether it applies to you.
How are you assessed, and what certificate do you get?
Every course ends with a video-proctored final exam that you must pass to receive the certificate. Proctoring is what makes it an exam employers can trust, and the QR code lets anyone check it.
| Final exam | Course 1 | Course 2 | Course 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Questions | 35 from 80 | 40 from 90 | 45 from 120 |
| Time | 45 min | 75 min | 90 min |
| Pass mark | 70 % | 75 % | 75 % |
| Attempts | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Closed book, copy and paste blocked, and questions drawn from a larger bank so no two papers are the same. A re-assessment fee applies after two attempts and is stated before you enrol. If power or data fails during the exam, email ASC within 48 hours; once the proctoring log is checked, one attempt is reset.
Scan to verify
Sample layout. What the certificate is: evidence of training your employer can use in its competence records. What it is not: FS60 courses are non-credit-bearing short courses, so they earn no credits towards the QCTO Quality Inspector or Quality Controller qualifications, and the Course 3 certificate is not a HACCP team or HACCP auditor qualification.
How much does food quality control training cost?
Course 1 costs R1 750, Course 2 R2 950 and Course 3 R3 950, or all three for R6 488 in the series bundle. Prices are in rand with no VAT charged, and no discount codes apply to the FS60 series. Other currencies below are indicative; your bank converts on the day.
Level 1 · Foundation
Food Quality Controller Fundamentals: Retail, DC and Wholesale
R1 750
once-off · no VAT charged
- About 15 hours · 8 modules
- 8 narrated videos and 3 practice tools
- Proctored final and QR-verified certificate
- No QC experience needed
Level 2 · Intermediate
QC Inspector Course for Food and Beverage Manufacturing
R2 950
once-off · no VAT charged
- About 20 hours · 8 modules
- 8 narrated videos and 3 practice tools
- Proctored final and QR-verified certificate
- Course 1 or 12 months in food
Level 3 · Advanced
QC/QA Supervisor Course for Food Manufacturing
R3 950
once-off · no VAT charged
- About 21 hours · 8 modules
- 8 narrated videos and 3 practice tools
- Proctored final and QR-verified certificate
- Course 2 or 2 years in QC
All three levels
FS60 Food Quality Control Series Bundle
R6 488
R8 650 · save R2 162
- Courses 1, 2 and 3, about 56 hours
- 24 narrated videos and all 9 tools
- Three proctored finals and certificates
- R50 more than Courses 2 and 3 alone
Prices in rand, currency converter on the page.
Training a team of five or more?
We enrol teams as a learner group with progress reporting, and companies can pay by invoice or purchase order.
Built for the people who sign the check sheet
Retail and DC quality controllers
Receiving, cold chain and shelf decisions you can defend to a driver, a manager and an EHP.
Store champions and persons in charge
The daily checks behind the Certificate of Acceptability, and records that prove due diligence.
Cash and carry and wholesale receiving
Vehicle, can, date and chemical-segregation checks on bulk and trade loads.
Factory QC inspectors and lab assistants
Limits and decisions for every line check, from sampling to CCP records.
Production team leaders
What you are signing for when you sign a QC check, and when to stop the line.
New QC and QA supervisors
Cover, verification, data, CAPA and recalls: the side of the job no one trains you for.
QA officers in small plants
Where QA is one person: a working verification system in 21 hours.
Graduates and career changers
Every practical runs on built-in case studies, so you can finish without a site of your own.
Free guides from the people who built the courses
How to become a food quality controller in South Africa
The two routes in, what employers ask for, where QCTO fits, and a 12-month plan.
Read the guide TemperatureR638 temperature limits explained
Chilled, frozen and hot limits, the 2 °C surface rule, the exemptions and power cuts.
Read the guide SamplingISO 2859-1:2026 and AQL sampling
What changed in the 2026 edition, and why a lot at twice the AQL still passes most of the time.
Read the guide WeightsAverage weight rules and the e-mark
SANS 458, T1 and T2 errors, fill targets and checkweigher verification.
Read the guide LeadershipQC supervisor vs QA supervisor
Duties, KPIs, complaints per million units and a job description you can adapt.
Read the guide LabellingR146 labelling: the complete guide
Allergens, date marks and the labelling rules a store and a factory check.
Read the guideFrequently asked questions
Still unsure? Ask ASC or use the WhatsApp button on this page.
What does a food QC inspector or quality controller do in South Africa?
A food quality controller checks that food is safe, legal and to specification at each control point: receiving, storage, the production line and dispatch. They probe temperatures, check labels and dates, verify cleaning and pest control, test weights and seals, hold non-conforming stock and keep the records that prove it. Supervisors plan and verify that work.
Which FS60 course should I start with?
If you work in a supermarket, DC, cash and carry or wholesaler, start with Course 1 (Food Quality Controller Fundamentals). If you work in a food or beverage factory and have at least a year's experience, start with Course 2. If you supervise QC or QA, or are about to, take Course 3. The three-question chooser on this page recommends a route.
Do I need Course 1 before Course 2?
No, if you have at least 12 months in food production, QC or a food laboratory. Course 2 opens its law and instrument lessons with recap cards for learners who skipped Course 1. Retail and DC learners who want to understand the factory side of their suppliers can take Course 1 and then Course 2.
Is this an accredited qualification?
No. ASC Food Safety Training is a FoodBev SETA accredited training provider (587/00337/1900), but the FS60 courses are non-credit-bearing short courses. You receive a QR verified Certificate of Achievement and no credits. Your certificate is evidence of training that your employer can use in its competence records.
How much do the courses cost and how long do they take?
Course 1 is R1 750 (about 15 hours), Course 2 is R2 950 (about 20 hours) and Course 3 is R3 950 (about 21 hours). Prices are in rand with no VAT charged, and a currency converter is on the page. All three together cost R6 488 in the series bundle. No discount codes apply to the FS60 series.
How are the courses assessed?
Every module has a knowledge check, a game and a practical with a model answer. Each course ends with a video-proctored final exam that you must pass to get the certificate: 70 percent on Course 1 and 75 percent on Courses 2 and 3, with 2 attempts. A re-assessment fee applies after two failed attempts and is stated before you enrol.
What certificate do I get, and how is it verified?
A Certificate of Achievement naming you, the course and its code, with a certificate number and a QR code that anyone can scan to confirm it is genuine. It states clearly that the course is a non-credit-bearing short course.
Does the supervisor course replace HACCP training?
No. Course 3 includes an introduction to HACCP for supervisors of about 2.5 hours: the legal position, reading a plan, PRP, OPRP and CCP, verifying CCPs and evaluating deviations. If you will sit on or lead a HACCP team, continue with HACCP for Supervisors and HACCP Teams, then Advanced HACCP System Implementation.
How is this different from Food Safety Inspections and Audit Readiness?
The FS60 series teaches what to check, the legal and technical limits, sampling and the decisions an inspector or supervisor makes. Food Safety Inspections and Audit Readiness teaches how to design checklists, gather evidence, write findings and run or host audits. The two work well together.
Are the temperatures and rules South African?
Yes. Temperatures come from R638 of 2018 in degrees Celsius, labels and dates from R146 of 2010, weights from the Legal Metrology Regulations (GN R877 of 2018) and recalls from the Consumer Protection Act and the NCC recall guidelines. International standards appear only where South African sites use them, such as ISO 2859-1:2026 for sampling.
Can I do it on my phone, and what if the power cuts out during the exam?
Lessons, videos, quizzes and most tools work on any phone; a few calculators and dashboards are easier on a laptop or tablet. The final exam needs a device with a front camera, a charged battery and a stable connection, so do the proctoring test drive first. If power or data fails during the exam, email ASC within 48 hours; once ASC has checked the proctoring log, one attempt is reset.
I'm not working in food yet. Can I still do the practicals?
Yes. Every practical has a case-study version with all the data on the page and a model answer, and Course 1 adds at-home versions, such as checking your own fridge thermometer at the ice point. On-the-job versions are optional extensions for learners who are already working.
Make every quality call one you can defend
Every reading you take ends in a decision someone else relies on: the store, the customer, the auditor. Start with the course that matches your job.
Teams of five or more: contact ASC. Or browse all ASC courses.