5.1.1 Internal Audit

Dear All,

Long time reader and downloader, first time poster.

I have question on Knockout 8, if someone can please advise.

KO N° 8: Effective internal audits shall be conducted
according to a defined agreed audit program and shall
cover at least all requirements of the IFS Standard.
Scope and frequency of internal audits shall be
determined by hazard analysis and assessment of
associated risks. This is also applicable for off site
storage locations owned or rented by the company.


We send frozen finished good to Cold Storage facility. They would store it for month or so and then come back to us when selling it. We don't own the cold storage and only renting a room in their facility. They have their own FSMS and are BRC certified.

Do you think we still need to complete internal audit based on IFS?
Or is it more for if we were renting the entire facility so therefore we were responsible for the FSMS on site?

Thanks for your help!!

Technically they are a supplier which I would be performing annual "Customer Audits" of their facilities, records/documents, etc...  Additionally, your customers more than likely would have to option to perform scheduled audits of their facilities as well, probably in any Quality agreement you have with them

Dear Freckles,

 

Did you receive a KO on not conducting 'internal' audit on your service supplier?

bryan63 thank you for the response Madam A. D-tor, no KO, I haven't had my initial audit.  When we had Gap Analysis, we had no external storage.

If I were you, I should include in the internal audits if you selected the external storage service supplier in the correct way (according your procedures and in compliance with IFS.

Hello Freckles,

 

It depends mainly if the employees that work for you in this rented Location are your employees (you should do an internal Audit because they are under your responsibility) or if they are from your storage supplier.

If this is the case, then your storage supplier does not fall under this requirement, but under requirement 4.14.6:

 

Where a company hires a third-party storage service provider,

the service provider shall be subject to IFS Logistics

requirements. If the third party service provider is not certified

to IFS Logistics, all relevant requirements equivalent to

the company’s own warehousing practices shall be fulfilled

and this shall be clearly defined in the respective contract.

 

Note that they expressely request an IFS certificate, which means the BRC certification from your supplier won't cut it... IFS promotes its business!

 

The KO 8 requires you to Audit this requirement, but if the requirement 4.14.6 is not respected they can't mark it under the KO 8 (provided you did Audit this Point and foresee a corrective Action).

 

Anyway, best place to start micht be checking how is the Service defined in your contract with this storage supplier.

 

Best regards,

Pauline