What programs are required for non-food contact corrugate packaging companies?

Hi All, 

Going for our first SQF audit in December. 

I am struggling to understand how to approve a corrugate packaging. This would be the secondary packaging and have no contact with the food. 

It seems that there a quite a few packaging companies that are not SQF etc audit. However there are some. 

1. What are your must have programs for a 2nd corrugate packaging companies to be an approved supplier?  

I have pest control, GMP program, shipping, receiving, foreign material  programs etc. 

2. If they do not have one of these- this is a risk, i understand. Would you approve them for not having one of these programs? 

Thank you in advance!! 

I am normally pretty darn good at figuring out questions on this board... however, can you please clarify what you are asking about.

If you are asking about the specific requirements of packaging for SQF you need to obtain a copy of the packaging standards manual (free of charge) from www.sqfi.com  - it's all there as to what you are required to comply with along with details on compliance items that would require capital expenses.

May want to consider getting an SQF Consultant to do a pre-development gap analysis as well to determine what needs to done.

Just sayin'

Thank you for your response. 

I am trying to figure out what supplier requirements i should set in place for corrugate or the secondary packaging that is not a GFSI audited company. 

Thank you. 

Would you limit your approval to an SQF certified supplier? I work for a corrugate supplier which has multiple sites certified to BRC, not SQF. We chose them because at the time we began the journey they were the only ones with a standard that specified packaging with a low hygiene (non-contact) level. It may open your possibilities to state GFSI certified instead of the specific scheme. 

With that said I would be concerned about them missing any of the programs with the exception of the foreign material. We have policies around protecting our product but do not have metal detectors or the like based on risk, we supply secondary or tertiary packaging so it goes through a number of processes after us and if metal detection is a risk at the final packing they would have the metal detector.

We supply many food companies both large and small and have been very successful with our BRC certifications so this approach has passed "muster."