Do we need to conduct audits on 3rd Party Warehouse?
We store our product in cold storage at the 3rd party warehouse. Per SQF, do we need to perform audits at this facility like you would a supplier?
This would be a contract service provider, if you still own the product while they're storing it then they're acting either as a contract manufacturer or contract service and apply those sections of the code as applicable.
A warehouse is holding your product..
I’d first see if there certified under SQF or another GFSI certification. Ask for the full report.
If not I’d perform a 2nd party audit. If they are certified, you could even consider taking a walkthrough and checking the condition of your product at the site.
best Of luck!
As a 3rd party storage facility, we are audited by our customers. We do not have GFSi certification yet, however, some of our customer/partners utilize our Silliker audit results and believe it's sufficient. There is one customer that is SQF certified and was told by their auditor that they had to hold us to the SQF standard when it came to compliance. I'm working on moving us to SQF certification within the next 3 years!
Hold them accountable and audit their facility. It's your product/brand on the line if they are not in compliance.
Agree with all of the above, especially with Jesus - it's your product on the line if they are out of line. Audit if you can, especially if they are not 3rd-party certified. Had a warehouse once that I suspected of temperature abuse that stalled on giving us examples of any kind of food safety procedures, outline, documentation, or produce any kind of audit. Turns out they had none of the above.