7 replies to this topic

[sdnavarro]

I work for a coffee company that gets a yearly GMP Costco audit, we receive all of our green beans through a broker, since they never take physical possession of the beans they do not get 3rd party audited. All of our green beans are stored and picked up from a coffee annex that has never gone through a 3rd party food safety audit, they have had organic, customer, and CTPAT audits though. How can I fufill the supplier certification requirements with a 3rd party audit for our main ingredient supplier? Anyone else having issues with this? We go through a major broker and receive beans from the major warehouse that everyone else is receiving there beans from too, any help would be appreciated! I am stumped, my broker said that they do not have 3rd party audits from any of its farms.

 

 

 

[The Food Scientist]

What standard do you follow? 

Just the GMP Costco?

 

Not so familiar with it but my assumption is you can audit them. Against that same checklist. Did you discuss it with them about having 3rd party audits?

 

I have had suppliers like that, but I discussed it with them and so far one out of like 5 wants to get a 3rd party audit. The rest until they get, we will audit them. 

Edited by The Food Scientist, 24 February 2020 - 06:06 PM.

[SQFconsultant]

You contact the owner/operator of the coffee annex - the warehouse and request a copy of their most recent 2nd or 3rd part audit.  Or you can commission an audit to be done thru any of the auditing companies, or you can go and conduct the audit.

 

Are not the brokers responsible for ensuring the foreign suppliers are FSVP?

[sdnavarro]

We are currently just following the Costco GMP audit guidelines that require a 3rd party audit with HACCP certification from all ingredient suppliers, every broker I've worked with before in the past was able to provide this to me. Would proof of a FSVP be enough to suffice this requirement? The Broker does have a FSVP in place.

[SQFconsultant]

We are currently just following the Costco GMP audit guidelines that require a 3rd party audit with HACCP certification from all ingredient suppliers, every broker I've worked with before in the past was able to provide this to me. Would proof of a FSVP be enough to suffice this requirement? The Broker does have a FSVP in place.

 

No, FSVP info for foreign suppliers would not equal a food safety audit on the storage facility.  I was just wondering what level your broker was at with things - my quirky mind works this way.

 

So, you need to get a hold of the owner/operator of the storage facility to see what they have avaialble,  commission an audit to be done on your behalf or do it yourself.

 

By the way, I love coffee and we lived in the middle of coffee plantations in Panama for the past couple of years - came back to the US and now have to order our coffee that we got from Panama and Costa Rica for $5-$6.00 a pound there, now thru Amazon here for $14-$20 a bag.  I miss home for this reason and others. But, for business it is easier here.

[Marcos77]

Curious what the results of this were.  We are finding ourselves in a similar situation.

[Spidey]

You mentioned that the supplier in question is organic certified.  Prior to my facility being SQF certified, we would send our organic certification to customers as proof of a 3rd party audit.  Organic certification audits review aspects of food safety as part of the audit.  Additionally, organic audits include traceability and mass balance exercises as part of the annual audit.  It might be worth it to request your supplier's organic certification audit report to review it for food safety information.  Then follow that up with a supplier questionnaire covering topics not covered by the organic audit.

[Mike Ebert]

Problem with coffee is its under modified rules of FSVP - and no importer is following the letter of the law to a T; but I don't blame them, it's confusing. under modified rules from my understanding is they do not have to do any supplier audits (growers), etc, but must do a hazard analysis and pass that onto their customer, and get assurances from said customer that they are controlling the hazards. Most just have a line on their invoice that states "we did not control any hazards, this is all on you" (not verbatim, all have slightly different language). 

 

I have been thru dozens of audits with clients, and so far to date, SQF this never causes a problem, with Costco and Costco addendums, it ALWAYS raises a flag, but, to date, never been given on non conformance or anything.