Will reporting problems on a trace exercise cause audit problems?

Hello,

 

We performed a test of our product trace (FIFO) today and noticed some inconsistencies in our records. This is the point of the test and we are thinking of follow up actions to take to improve the system. However, if we find issues that would cause problems in tracing product in the event of a recall, is it detrimental to record such results? Can issues found during the test of a food safety system element result in bigger problems if the SQF auditor sees records of them? 

Naw, you're fine as long as you are making efforts to understand the discrepancies.

The sole purpose of performing a test is to see if there are any issues, and correcting them.  As long as you follow up with CAPA and show it to your auditor, it's no problem. 

It's in your best interest to record them actually. It demonstrates your continuous improvement. There's would be no improvements if you didn't identify deficiencies.

 

Think of it as an emergency drill, the purpose is to move to the point where all contingencies are accounted for. You improve the "drill" after each weak point of failure is identified so in the event there is a real emergency, you have, hopefully, already perfected the response.

As a former SQF Auditor I would rather see a progressive series of excerises that finally resulted in fewer and fewer to no issues than have someone attempt a snow job me in not showing paperwork to me.

Its always better for your QA to find the issues than an external auditor finding it out. The important thing is you have corrective actions and you conducted follow up to verify effectiveness of the corrective actions. The auditor might ask you to conduct an exercise just to really see if the issue was addressed and it is not recurring in your process.

You have fulfilled the purpose of the exercise. You are to be congratulated not criticized.

 

Finding problems and correcting them before they become a problem in a real occurrence is the job. Have your problems here in an excercise

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Document the corrective action and you have demonstrated continuous improvement as noted by Hooslersmoker.

Record your actual findings. make changes in the areas you found issues and do another recall. the purpose of doing mocks is to find and fix issues and show improvement.

All fantastic advice.

Thank you everyone! I appreciate your replies.