SQF Surveillance audit
We will be having a surveillance audit from May - June window. Being that this is at 6 months, what is the auditor looking for? Do they expect the whole code to be done in 6 months (i.e annual reviews to be done in 6 months) or can you we be working on the annual basis of it and show the work being done towards it? Overwhelmed with having to do the whole code now and then again in a few months. I feel like it's doing a years worth of work twice in one year and that's a lot.
Can I assume your company either failed the audit (that resulted in this surveilance audit) or went borderline?
Assuming that - you have to pass the surveilance audit or you get delisted.
Right from the SQF code, "The surveillance audit is a full SQF System audit." So yes, it will cover everything. That does not mean they expect a year worth of tasks to be completed, but everything that should have occurred according to your programs in that timeframe will be.
Like any audit, you can expect there to be some measure of extra attention given to areas which had non-compliances in the past.
If I were in your shoes, I'd schedule a fresh review of whatever you covered in your annual to capture the 5 months of information leading up to the surveillance audit, and attach it somehow with your reviews conduct for the annual period. Example: say your audit was in Jan 2024 and you reviewed your complaints for 2023 in Jan 2024 and identified trends, just do a fresh review of them for the period between the audit and the surveillance audit (Jan 2024 through June 2024) and compare the trends found during both. I can't see the need to re-review information you've already reviewed, and assuming you did a good job for the prior period, you can basically show additional months reviewed as supplemental and supporting of your previous work.
A surveillance audit is another full audit, but you can expect the auditor to focus expressively on the findings that led to your company going into a surveillance audit. Make sure those CA's submitted are well monitored and under control to pass the scrutiny the auditor will place upon them.
I have been part of a surveillance audit and as long as your items such as mock recall, crisis management and food defense challenge are still in that year period you are good to go. Ex: If your audit was in June 23 and you did your mock recall in January 23 and your surveillance audit is in December 24 then you can use the same mock recall.