Hi there.
I'm a QA manager at a small family owned cheese processor. We don't have a large footprint; we're SQF Level 3 certified.
I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the food fraud vulnerability assessment requirements for SQF in 2.5 of the System Elements. I have been looking at the tool on this website because it is frequently recommended. However, I'm a little confused:
- Is this tool meant to assess your process, your ingredient, your suppliers?
- How many assessments might be common for a small company with - say - 25 suppliers that only deals with two product categories (processed cheese and natural cheese)? The instructions within the tool seem to suggest that you may need several assessments for your ingredients/suppliers/process.
I feel like I'm getting lost in the weeds on this more than necessary.
Hi brholder,
I suggest you look at a few more threads here on VA if you wish to appreciate what it means. And read the SQF Guidance.
The tool is intended to evaluate vulnerabilities in respect to the definitions offered by SQF (not necessarily identical to other FS standards).
SQF also face a problem in that they separate their safety/quality standards. In this specific case, this approach generates some complexity for VA.
In theory its a simple topic, in practice not. BRC started up the focus and then realised they themselves poorly understood the scope of the issues involved. It looks to have taken at least a year to resolve many of the confusions over what to do to respond to their requirements.
i suspect SQF are admitting/(trying to) evading the now well-known complexity by promoting one tool / methodology. Presumably this means that if you follow their Guidance you should pass.
I guess the success (or not) of much simpler interpretaions as suggested in previous post will soon become evident in audits. In the meantime (as was for BRC) I suppose it's a sellers' (consultants') market.