Differences between SQF Edition 8 and 8.1 for Food Packaging
Does anyone know what the differences are between SQF System Elements for Manufacture of Food Packaging Materials Edition 8 and 8.1?
We have written our program using edition 8.
When the auditor came for the desk audit, he mentioned if we are using 8.1, at the time I didn't realize they were different, until after when I received the auditors report and it said 8.1.
He is coming back for the certification audit and if there are differences between the 2 editions I need to change our program accordingly.
Thanks.
uh-oh, part of SQF requirement is that you should have procedures in place to ensure the site is kept informed and up to date in changese in legislation, tech developments, emerging food safety issues and relevant industry codes.
If I am an auditor and you are not aware there is edition 8.1, then this is an issue for me versus clause 2.4.1.2. Better address this now before your certification audit too.
I don't think it was pushed as heavily as the change to 8.0 was because it's really only minor changes to wording, grammar, spelling, etc. So I don't think you'll have to really change much of anything in your current policies and procedures.
Publishing announcement can be found here https://www.sqfi.com...qf-edition-8-1/
However as majoy mentioned above, it is the responsibility of the site to ensure they are following the current edition, so you should probably write and follow a procedure to ensure this is done. It could be something as simple as designating appropriate personnel in your facility (SQF Practitioner(s) and their backup(s), senior management, etc.) to register for the SQFI email newsletter (edition 8.1 was announced in their email newsletter in July), and for the SQF Practitioner to check the SQFI website quarterly for any further info or updates (this is what we do at our facility and it's always seemed satisfactory for auditors).
You can also sign up for their free Learning Lunch Webinars as well to stay on top of changes and other current issues. Their webinar that covered Edition 8.1 had the following info on a slide:
Edition 8.1
Implementation Timeline
1) Published July 2nd
2) Implementation on September 2nd
3) Desk audits conducted prior to September 2nd can have a desk audit for edition 8.0 or 8.1
4) Surveillance audits will be conducted to the Code they were certified against
FYI - Edition 9.0 is being targeted for released the end of 2020.
Thank You!!
Other than the grammatical error corrections and redundant elements, there were no real changes between 8.0 and 8.1 but watch for 9.0, I hear there will be more changes there for sure. They say mid year 2020 but with their track record it will likely be closer to 1/1/2021
One change (Quality audit) was the removal of specifically using SPC methods for identification of deficiencies. If you already have a system in place for this, it just needs to be sufficient to identify any deficiencies through the existing data collection to identify them and, of course, be able to show the system and information collected. We received a minor for this last year, didn't change anything and this week our auditor saw what we have and said it was more than sufficient.