Audit Frequency (sort of)

Dear All,

As a company we supply 99.9% our own brand and our company standard is the IFS. However as we supply 0.1% of our business as one line in retailer own brand they require us to have a BRC audit.

I have already fallen out with the Technologist as their policy is written very vaguely but enforced differently, e.g. they state

"2.3 SUPPLIER LIAISON WITH ***&^%^&*"!"

Objective

To establish an open and interactive partnership between the supplier and
***&^%^&*"!",in order to develop private label products.

Suppliers will be audited prior to supply, by a ***&^%^&*"!" authorised representative, encompassing this Code of Practice, and the BRC
Standard. Follow up visits will be made periodically to ensure continual
compliance and the follow up of corrective action.'

My assumptions are as follows:

1. We were audited by an authorised rep against the BRC / Customer code of practice prior to supply so we comply.
2. The IFS standard encompasses the BRC / customer code of practice therefore there is no need for a BRC audit.

Assumption number 2 is wrong according to their Technologist and they tell me we must have a BRC audit (I'm sorry, but I don't see that in the policy).

So we go ahead and book our BRC audit a year after the last one. (Cheers from the customer ).

When I send out a reminder to all the managers I get the feedback that they will be very busy with a new computer system and a director asks me to delay the audit by a couple of weeks. I find out the new dates from the audit company and let the customer Technologist know. They state that we can no longer supply them!! (Look at their policy, 'periodically', I call every 50 to 54 weeks periodically!!)

This is a long way round to getting to my point. In the BRC certification process is a delay of a couple of weeks possible within the certification process? There must be some leeway in the process anyway as there is a 28 day time allowed for submission of corrective actions and the time taken to issue the final certificate. This can leave a company with out a BRC certificate for 6 to 8 weeks ( what does ***&^%^&*"!" do about that?)

Cheers

Speaking specifically about the BRC Packaging Standard; certificates are often issued with an expiry date a couple of years away to ensure continuation of certification whilst the inevitable delays take place following the audit. I'm sure it will be the same situation for the Food Standard as many Cert Bodies do both. That said the Food Technologist is acting like an intransigent arse caused probably by the tiff you had.

Simon

I have just got my official copy of version 4 and it makes it clear on evaluation visit frequency. It gives a time window which is the date of the first evaluation audit + 1 year - 28 days, i.e any time up to 28 days BEFORE the due date.

I still don't agree with ***&^%^&*"!"'s interpretation of their own policy. Maybe I should go and audit them.