SLSI Quality Records: What a Food Maker Keeps Before Launch
By the Silk Foods Ceylon Editorial Team
Buyer’s snapshot
- SLSI’s quality-system guide for the SLS mark, GL-CP-01 Issue 03 (April 2025), lists twelve elements, and records run through most of them (SLSI, 2025).
- It sets no retention period. The maker decides it, so the file needs a written rule.
- Silk Foods Ceylon (SFC) builds SLSI submission support into a contract manufacturing engagement, on a BRCGS- and FSSC 22000 V6-audited line in Matale.
- The table below maps each clause to the record behind it.
A first SLSI application is judged partly on what the file can prove about a jar that has already been made. The recipe is one half of the evidence. The other half is paper: who approved the supplier, which scale weighed the batch, what happened to the jar that failed. SLSI’s own guide says quality records must be “readily retrievable”, and that is a higher bar than “somewhere on a laptop”.
The stages of an SLSI submission are already mapped in the seven-stage walkthrough for a first packaged-food submission. This post covers what that walkthrough leaves out: the records a maker keeps, clause by clause, and where each one has to exist before a first shelf delivery.
What does SLSI mean by “quality records”?
SLSI’s GL-CP-01, Issue 03 dated 20 April 2025, offers manufacturers two routes to the quality system an SLS mark needs: Option 1, a system built on twelve named elements, or Option 2, a system built on ISO 9001:2015. Meeting either option is a prerequisite for the mark (SLSI, 2025).
The guide defines quality records broadly: all records that demonstrate conformance to specified requirements, and effective operation of the quality system. Its own examples are test records, internal quality audit reports and management review reports. Company standards count as “specified requirements”, so a maker’s own jar-weight limit is as auditable as a Sri Lanka Standard limit.
Two details change how a small maker prepares. First, a quality manual sits at the top and must link down to procedures, work instructions and forms; the records are the bottom layer that proves the top layer is used. Second, a foreign production site must hold a valid ISO 9001 certificate, so Option 1 is a route for Sri Lankan units only.
Which records does GL-CP-01 name, clause by clause?
Reading the guide against the record each clause implies gives a working list of ten record sets. The clause numbers below are SLSI’s. The “record behind it” column is what a maker would file to show the clause is operating, drawn from the clause’s own wording.
| GL-CP-01 clause | The record behind it | Where it usually lives |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1.3 Management review | Dated review minutes covering audit reports, staff and equipment adequacy, customer complaints | Quality lead |
| 2.3.1 Supplier evaluation | An approved-supplier list, reviewed at set intervals | Purchasing |
| 2.5.1 Receiving inspection | Incoming material checks; any urgent release flagged for recall | Goods-in |
| 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 In-process and final tests | Test and inspection results against the quality plan | Production floor |
| 2.6 Test equipment | Calibration status and history for scales, thermometers, gauges | Quality lead |
| 2.7 Inspection and test status | Pass, fail or awaiting-test identification on product | Production floor |
| 2.8 Non-conforming product | Identification, evaluation, segregation, disposal and notification entries | Quality lead |
| 2.10 Control of quality records | The procedure that indexes, files, stores and disposes of all of the above | Document controller |
| 2.11 Internal audits | Audit plan, findings, corrective actions and follow-up audit | Independent auditor |
| 2.12 Training | Training needs and training records for staff whose work affects quality | HR or quality |
Notice what the table cannot give: a retention period. The guide says only that “Retention time of these records shall be determined” by the manufacturer. That sentence is the most useful thing in clause 2.10 for a first-time applicant, because it means the rule is yours to write and yours to be held to.
Where do the records sit in the weeks before a first delivery?
SLSI’s published process has a pre-assessment audit with the first sample set, product testing, a final assessment audit with the second sample set, then the permit committee (SLSI, 2026). The final assessment covers the product, the quality system and the statutory requirements. GL-CP-01 does not say which audit samples which record, so the sequence below is how a maker can stage the file, not an SLSI checklist.
| Stage | What the file should already show | Why it matters at that point |
|---|---|---|
| Before the application | Quality manual, procedures, approved-supplier list, calibration plan | The desktop evaluation reads documents, not products |
| Pre-assessment audit | Receiving and in-process records for the batch the first samples came from | The first sample set has to trace to a real, recorded batch |
| Between the two audits | Corrective-action closure; no formulation change | A mid-process change makes earlier test results stop describing the product |
| Final assessment audit | A run of batch, test-status and non-conformance records, plus one internal audit | The audit covers the quality system as operating, not as written |
| Permit and first dispatch | Final-test release record for the first shelf batch | Product cannot be dispatched until it conforms |
A maker who has never run an internal audit should schedule one before the final assessment, since clause 2.11 requires audits by trained people with no direct responsibility for the area audited. In a small unit that usually means a colleague from another function or an outside auditor.
Buyer’s checklist: the file before the first audit
- A written record-retention rule, set per record type
- An approved-supplier list with a review date
- Calibration labels and a log for every scale and probe used in release
- A batch record for each production run, including the sample draws
- A pass, fail and hold tagging scheme that staff actually use
- A non-conformance log, even if the first year has few entries
- One completed internal audit with a closed follow-up
- Training records for every person who touches the line
A pattern the SFC team sees with kitchen-scale founders is not a missing document. It is a missing link between documents. The recipe card says 300 g per jar, the scale used was never calibrated, and nobody can say which batch the lab sample came from. Each paper exists; the chain does not. Closing that link before the first sample draw costs little, and leaving it open can cost a corrective action at pre-assessment.
How long should a maker keep the records?
The guide gives no number, so any figure has to come from the maker’s own logic. A planning heuristic, not an SLSI requirement: keep each batch record at least until the best-before date of the last jar from that batch has passed, and keep audit and management-review records for at least one full surveillance cycle. Surveillance audits continue after the permit; SLSI’s scheme page describes them as annual, so confirm the cadence with SLSI when you apply (SLSI, 2026).
For makers taking Option 2, ISO 9001:2015 does not fix periods either. Clause 7.5.3.2 lists retention and disposition among the activities an organisation must address, again leaving the figure to the organisation (isotracker, 2026). Whichever option applies, write the rule down. An unwritten retention habit cannot be shown to an auditor.
Two practical points. Paper that fades is a records risk, so thermal-printer test slips get photocopied or scanned. And a digital folder counts only if someone other than its author can find a record in under a few minutes, which is what “readily retrievable” means in practice.
What does the 2025 guide leave out?
Two things that buyers often assume the guide covers are not named as standalone clauses in Issue 03. There is no section titled traceability, and there is no section titled complaint handling. Complaints appear only as an input to management review, and the nearest traceability wording is the requirement that any product released urgently be identified so it can be recalled if a non-conformity is found later.
That is an information gain for a founder reading the guide for the first time: a maker who files only what the twelve headings name will have no formal answer to “which retailers got jars from batch 14?”. A lot-coding scheme and a complaints log are cheap to add, and a buyer running its own supplier audit may ask for both. They also sit under the labelling law, which is a separate layer: the Food Act governs the label regardless of SLS certification, as covered in what SLSI clearance does and does not cover.
Keep the file yourself, or rent a manufacturer’s?
A founder can build this file alone, and the first-year cost build-up for an SLSI application shows what that takes in fees. The harder cost is time: a documented quality system with a run of operating records takes time to produce honestly, and it cannot be backfilled, because the records have to show the system working while product was being made.
Inside a contract manufacturing engagement, the production-site records already exist on the manufacturer’s side: calibration, supplier approval, batch and test status. The brand still owns the recipe, the label artwork and the commercial dossier. The kitchen-batch case study maps one such run week by week, and the move from a home kitchen to a contract run covers the handover. Contract manufacturing at the Matale facility folds the submission into the engagement, and private labelling suits brands starting from an existing SFC formulation.
Where SFC walks away
A brand with no stable formulation and no intent to apply for the SLS mark is not yet ready for a records conversation. The better first step is a few more rounds of kitchen testing, then a signed brief.
Frequently asked questions
How long must a food maker keep SLSI quality records?
GL-CP-01 Issue 03 sets no period. Clause 2.10 says retention time of quality records “shall be determined” by the manufacturer (SLSI, 2025). Write a rule per record type, and apply it consistently, because the rule you set is the one an auditor will hold you to.
Does an SLSI application need an ISO 9001 certificate?
Not for a Sri Lankan production unit. Manufacturers may follow Option 1, the twelve-element system in GL-CP-01, or Option 2, a system built on ISO 9001:2015. A valid ISO 9001 certificate is required only where production is outside Sri Lanka (SLSI, 2025).
Is there a traceability or complaints clause in GL-CP-01?
Not as a standalone heading in Issue 03 (SLSI, 2025). Complaints feed management review under clause 2.1.3, and urgent releases must be identified for recall under clause 2.5. A lot-coding scheme and a complaints log are sensible additions that a retail buyer’s audit may ask for.
Can Silk Foods Ceylon handle the records side of an SLSI submission?
Yes. SLSI submission support sits inside a standard contract manufacturing engagement at the Matale facility, where calibration, supplier approval and batch records already run on an audited line. First-run MOQs are 1,500 jars for spreads, 1,250 bottles for beverages and 180 bottles for capsules.
How Silk Foods Ceylon can help
For founders launching a first commercial run, Silk Foods Ceylon operates a cellular-manufacturing facility in Matale that handles the steps between a tested recipe and a retail-ready SKU, with SLSI submission support built into a standard contract manufacturing engagement. First-run MOQs are 1,500 jars for spreads (300 g glass), 1,250 bottles for beverages (200 ml), and 180 bottles for capsules. Lead times typically run 2 to 3 weeks once a recipe is locked; if R&D is needed first, it takes 3 to 4 weeks maximum from signed brief to approved formulation. The facility is BRCGS- and FSSC 22000 V6-audited, with SLSI clearance and Sri Lanka Food Act compliance on every retail SKU.
To brief a project, email brands@esilkroute.com.lk or call +94 76 441 0389 / +94 76 918 5744.
Sources
Sri Lanka Standards Institution, “Quality Management System Requirements for SLS Mark Product Certification, GL-CP-01, Issue 03,” 20 April 2025. slsi.lk. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
Sri Lanka Standards Institution, “SLS Mark Product Certification,” 2026. slsi.lk. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
isotracker, “Document Control in ISO 9001:2015: What the Standard Requires,” 2026. isotracker.com. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
Written by the Silk Foods Ceylon Team. Silk Foods Ceylon (Pvt) Ltd. is a BRCGS- and FSSC 22000 V6-audited contract manufacturer in Matale, Sri Lanka, offering contract manufacturing, private labelling, co-packing, and in-house R&D for local Sri Lankan brand owners, FMCG companies, hotel and restaurant groups, and distributors. To brief a project: brands@esilkroute.com.lk, +94 76 441 0389, or +94 76 918 5744.
