Can I postpone our BRC audit due to a hurricane?
We were affected by the major hurricane Ida. The plant was shut down for almost 1 month. We still have some damages need to repair and lack of personnel. Can we postpone our annual audit date? What should I do and what should I tell the CB?
Being "in an area that has suffered a natural or unnatural disaster, rendering the site unable to produce or the auditor unable to visit" is one of the listed "justifiable circumstances" for delaying recertification audits - see page 73 of the standard.
I'd give your CB a call and explain that you were affected by hurricane Ida and will need to delay your recertification audit. I would imagine that you won't be the only site for whom this is unfortunately necessary.
Just to be sure, you are not running that plant (producing food grade material) at this time, correct? The plant itself was impacted to the point of complete shut down?
Edit-Complete and CURRENT shut down?
If we still can produce but we are struggling to have fully running because of lack of personnel. Some of the employees have to deal with their house damage or lack of transportation. Is that a good reason for postpone? Besides, we have to fix our roof. They cause leaking, not in production area. Please suggest. Thanks.
Ok, I have never run a BRC certified facility. That being said, pH fruit quoted "in an area that has suffered a natural or unnatural disaster, rendering the site unable to produce or the auditor unable to visit."
It's not the natural disaster that is the qualifying factor there, it's the fact that the natural disaster caused your plant to shut down or the auditor unable to visit. I will let someone who runs a BRC certified facility answer this more conclusively, but I find it extremely unlikely they would let you use the hurricane as a "justifiable circumstance" if you are still producing food grade product. Difficulty upholding the standard due to a circumstance doesn't negate the risk, and should be addressed prior to making food grade product.
I'm shocked you haven't got a call from the FDA. I've had an FDA call after each near miss hurricane, not to mention this cat 1 that just kissed us.
On a personal level I have huge sympathies for the OP, I fear that Tim G might be right on this - if you're still producing then there is perhaps an argument your management of incidents procedures under clause 3.11.1 should be in effect, and this is something that your auditor may wish to look at.
Given the widespread disruption it is still potentially worth making a phone call to the certification body to get their thoughts on it though, as you haven't really got anything to lose from doing so.
The only issue here is that you are still operating the facility to process food despite the fact that you don,t have enough human resources and the roof needs repair.
In this case then chances are high that food safety,quality and legality would be compromised to some extent.
I would suggest you fix all the issues before proceeding with the BRC audit. Otherwise you may end up with so many NCRs degrading your certification.
Im a little late to the party, but you should have notified the CB when the issue happened. See attached from "5 General Protocol - Post audit"