BRCGS Food audit - hours of the audit
Forgive me if this has been posed elsewhere on the portal, but is anyone aware of (or have any experience) with BRCGS audits that have (in full, or part) taken place outside of standard agreed office hours - e.g. late starts, or over weekends, where shift working may be in operation?
We have always mutually agreed audit start and planned finish times with the CB, but should we adopt a limited additional - evening - shift, is there any expectation that an auditor might start late to encompass part of that late shift, or need to stay over or return later to inspect processes that operate outside the core hours?
Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide.
Not BRC, SQF and they always start at say 8:30 day one, but at 5:30 am day 2 to see pre op and start up
We have staff onsite 24 hours a day, and afternoon shift starts at 3, so they have never stayed late
The weekend shift would depend on what you've told them your hours are.........if you don't run weekends as a regularly scheduled shift, I cannot imagine a situation where they would audit during that time
As a former SQF Auditor I have worked 24/7 - from 4am for pre-op and first shift, sometimes at 9pm - 3am and other odd hours plus weekends. It was completely dependent on the situation - with that said I absolutely hated doing early early mornings and lates as my week was heavy duty enough already with flying, hotels, rental cars and everything else.
There have also been situations completely caused by the facility where we just plowed thru until the week hours of the morning.
Shift happens.
Never an into an audit with other than normal business hours. Usual start around 8AM till 4:30 or 5. Been the odd time where we may run a little late due to production issues or spending to much time on a section. But no nights or weekends.
I'm with Scampi: never had an auditor arrive outside of normal office hours, but they'll often ask to have the people in the audit start early with them the following morning to observe pre-op and/or the end of sanitation shifts.
For BRC, the first day, I've never had anyone show up before 7:45ish. The 2nd day depending on their schedule can start a bit earlier. That said, I've still never started a BRC audit before 7am. The only one I had run long was because of a facility not having things prepared.
Thank you to everyone who has replied on this topic.
I know I'm late, but I also agree with Scampi regarding timings.
However, our unannounced audit generally takes 3.5 days and you know that come 10 a.m. you can generally relax a little if no-one has turned up by then.
Wrong, one year we had an auditor turn up at midday, we all thought reception was having a laugh.