Costco Addendum History

Can anyone out there in food safety land tell me the history of the Costco addendum?

When did it begin

Why it was brought into existence. 

Because Costco wants to protect their own brand so the addendum is a Costco specific traceability exercise and audits documents that cover product that they buy

And probably because they recognize the GFSI program is seriously flawed

I may be slightly off, but it started about 5 years after SQF began picking up speed in the US.

Costco will only allow "approved" auditing companies to do the addendum thus restricting free and open competition amongst the auditing companies and of course Costco actually charges a fee to the few auditing companies to get on the approved list.  

It's the classic pay to play and if you want to sell to Costco thats what has to be done.

I call it like it is - its all about the $$ and has nothing to do with a quality issue of GFSI.

The addendum started way GFSI.   I had them back in the day where there were only basic GMP audits.  As I recall, back then it was only a few Costco specific requirements (like the mock trace) and the rest of the addendum was pretty basic.  

I think the why has always been about brand protection.  

I agree with kingstudruler1.  I also had Costco addendum to the GMP audit (Silliker at the time).  And because we were "down the street" in Seattle, we also had 2 Costco employees accompany the Silliker auditor, adding extra time to the audit.