The implementation of a “Salmonella Monitoring and Reduction Programme” in the framework of the emerging national quality assurance programme (it is called the “QS-System”) for food products (starting with pork) in Germany has led to the necessity to provide farmers and slaughter plants with guidelines for a) how to identify the critical points on their own farm and in their own slaughter plant that could be “responsible” for a high Salmonella load of the final product (= live slaughter pigs in case of the farm or carcasses and cut meat in case of the slaughter plant), and b) how to develop a “HACCP-like” plan for a measurable reduction of the salmonella load. The paper describes the development of check lists that can be used for both benchmarking and identifying “weak points” as basis for targeted intervention strategies in the framework of continuous improvement programmes.