Supplier missing 3rd Party Audit information
We have quite a few suppliers we use at my facility and most of them use a different set of standards other than SQF. As such quite a few of our suppliers don't have 3rd party audit information. I know the code states that a register of audits of approved suppliers shall be maintained but, is it really necessary for me to travel to each location and conduct my own 3rd party audit in order to retrieve the required documentation? Our suppliers are from all over the country so I would probably be spending a good majority of my year just travelling to conduct these audits. Do any of you have any alternative solutions?
Thank you
If you are talking about general suppliers and not contract suppliers (contract suppliers make your product and put it in your packaging thus for all intents it appears to have come direct from your company) they are not required to be GFSI certified (eg - SQF, BRC, FSSC, IFS, etc etc).
Assuming general suppliers you should have a complete audit on file for each one and I am asuming your approval process requires this.
If that is the case and you don't use an alternate method that is allowed by SQF (check the codes) you can either go and do your own audits or commission an auditing company to do it for you and you pay them or your supplier pays for it or you can engage an experienced person such as myself or others to do so on your behalf.
So, you have some choices.
I am the SQF Practitioner at a food packaging company so we have materials versus ingredients. I send a Food Safety Self Audit to each supplier and asked them to complete it. if they are GFSI certified then they did not need to complete it. An example is attached.
As always, it depends on the standard that you are audited against.
BRC allows you to accept non-GFSI food safety audits of your suppliers, with the proviso that they have to supply you with the actual audit report that you need to review.
It's certainly not the intention of that standard that you have to physically audit all of your suppliers.
I guess some more context might be in order.
Marshall
I am the SQF Practitioner at a food packaging company so we have materials versus ingredients. I send a Food Safety Self Audit to each supplier and asked them to complete it. if they are GFSI certified then they did not need to complete it. An example is attached.
Sorry, no attachment ?
As always, it depends on the standard that you are audited against.
BRC allows you to accept non-GFSI food safety audits of your suppliers, with the proviso that they have to supply you with the actual audit report that you need to review.
It's certainly not the intention of that standard that you have to physically audit all of your suppliers.
I guess some more context might be in order.
Marshall
We are audited against the SQF Standard for food packaging, we don't handle any food product at our facility.
I am the SQF Practitioner at a food packaging company so we have materials versus ingredients. I send a Food Safety Self Audit to each supplier and asked them to complete it. if they are GFSI certified then they did not need to complete it. An example is attached.
I like the idea of sending them a self audit worksheet. I am unable to see any sort of attachment, if you could send me one I would appreciate it.
For some reason, I could not attach it before.