Hi Charles
Yes you have correctly deduced the procedure. Having written down the responses against the questions what can I do next? Is that sufficient to have demonstrated the system has been audited? Do I need to produce a formal report as well? This is what I have been doing up to now but is this just a waste of effort?
Dear Rosemary,
In truth, although I'm not a packaging person, the IA related text of the BRC Packaging Standard seems conceptually more simplistic (less demanding?) than that for food.
For example, BRC6Food has -
3.4 Internal audit
FUNDAMENTAL
The company shall be able to demonstrate it verifies the effective application of the food safety plan and the implementation of the requirements of the Global Standard for Food Safety.
cf -
Internal audits
Statement of Intent
The company shall audit those systems and procedures which cover the requirements of the Standard to ensure they are in place, appropriate and complied with.
The subsequent sub-paragraphs also seem more penetrative than those for packaging, eg Food 3.4.4.
So perhaps the BRC packaging standard's expectation is proportionately less ?. I hesitate to suggest possible reasons for this.
Not exactly sure what you mean by "formal report" ? If you are referring to documentation of the corrective actions etc, AFAI can see, this is auto-required by the standard ?
If you mean "are there other general approaches to performing an IA" ?, the answer is Yes. For example ISO likes to promote their analysis / evaluation of the systems we are discussing via Process Groups. i have always kept a safe distance from such (to me) high-tech solutions.
Rgds / Charles.C