Dear Heather and all,
Very good comments from all.
Here is my 2 cents worth: the company I was working with to pass their last SQF audit with flying colors (well, not a %100) was about as Heather described: poor and sloppy. So I didn't really celebrate. Gives the food packer a false sense of security. I was pretty upset about the ordeal.
I understand that having a very complex processing facility with many different categories and products is allot to get through but our auditor finished up a 3 day audit in 2. I did present the code in a very logical and easy way with very little scrambling for documents (this sped up the audit), but one would think the auditor would spend more time on the floor... however, floor observation times are not specified by SQF (vs. BRC have very specific instructions on how time the auditor must spend out on the floor observing operations).
What frustrates me is the lack of consistency between 3rd party auditors, thus one gets inconsistent guidance in final audit reports. One would think passing the audit, one's food safety systems are sound and tried true, however, because of the inconsistency, one really does not know (i.e. our auditor did not comment or even verify if we did our traceability test even though a traceability exercise is not the same as a mock recall) how the next auditor will interpret clause requirements. The final report, IMO, will be just as useless as the past one: really giving no guidance for the future (in the past I was used to well written BRC reports for future guidance).
The auditor missed some very large gaping holes that could be found with little effort, if they audited correctly. Fortunately, the company I was worked with is correcting many of the holes the auditor missed (effective lot tracking, observational RTE food sanitation procedures, observational raw vs. cooked RTE product "proximity" separation). This is all very serious stuff.
Make me wonder why the Sunland, Inc peanut company recall... it got SQF (level 3) certified before their September 2012 recall... 5 months worth of production! And every ice-cream, granola, etc company it supplied to... Uff!
http://www.ifsqn.com...ntarily-recall/
If audit integrity is not maintained with watered down GFSI benchmark 3rd party auditors: what is there to assure that that salmon farmer in Chili is producing safe food in things not readily apparent (feed quality), that Shrimp Farmer in Thailand, or that distribution company moving RTE food in California?