First time Costco audit, no GFSI certification

Costco accepted our current AIB GMP Inspection to get us started as a supplier, but is asking that our next audit is a Costco Food Safety GMP audit. No one at my facility has any experience with GFSI audits and from what I understand, a Costco audit is "basically" a GFSI audit. Is that an accurate comparison? The template seems to have a lot of overlap with the SQF template and it sounds like most Costco suppliers have a GFSI certification. I've worked in FSSC 22000 certified facilities previously and have found that AIB GMP Inspections are not nearly as involved as the GFSI audits I've been a part of. I'm trying to set expectations for my company's ability to pass a different audit than what we're used to and want to make sure we understand our next steps. Thank you!

Yes, GMP is a small part of Costco standard. What I've learned from the most recent GFSI/Costco audit is that a company must have at least 2 mock recalls, related to Costco products. 

I would place the Costco gmp audit (level of difficulty so to speak) in the middle between the AIB and an SQF - basically your company needs to up the game a bit from the expectations of the simple AIB audit.

I remember years ago when I and a group of 10 other 3rd party auditors would become the first to begin the new SuperValu audits - so many companies at that time thought AIB was the best and as long as they got their superior ratings that no matter what was on the SuperValu audit they would ace it.... most places that were AIB failed the SuperValu audit or came in with a lower score - years later the Costco audit followed the SuperValu audit - many of the things you will find on the Costco audit originated with SuperValu.

Be sure to get a copy of the Costco audit before you all venture into the deeper water.

Would be a good idea to begin working towards one of the GFSI certifications.

Sorry no experience of costco but plenty of AIB.  How I'd say GFSI differs from AIB is the systems side.  Apart from pest control and maintenance, I found AIB audits were very light touch on systems.  

Best approach I can suggest is getting in touch with Costco and asking for their standard.  I know it's not rocket science but it's a completely valid thing to request so you can do a gap analysis against it and prepare.  If they refuse to share it with you (that would be a bloody rough response if they do but some retailers used to operate that way) then you could always use a GFSI standard as a guide to how to approach the systems side.  BRCGS is available for free online for example.  But the problem with that is it might not cover all the requirements they want.

Good luck, hope it goes well.

As someone who works for a company where one facility is SQF certified and the other just certified to the AIB standard, this biggest difference is how much heavier the SQF certification is on documents, SOPs and records.  AIB is more or less a Facility Inspection with some document and record review.  SQF is about 1/2 day (for our facility) Facility Inspection with the next 1 1/2 days of reviewing our written SOP's, programs and records.  Years ago I worked for a company where we were AIB for many years and went to SQF and I was the main person to get us there.  You would need to implement some extra programs and beef up some of your current SOPs to meet the standard.  So good news is you have solid groundwork already laid. 

As others said, request the Costc's standard, do a gap analysis and start there with where you need to fill in the gaps to comply.

I actually find the AIB audits to be quite good and better than they were all those years ago.  I believe they have invested and are working towards making their standard much better.  Have had some good experiences with their auditors to the AIB standard in recent years as well.

 

 

I actually find the AIB audits to be quite good and better than they were all those years ago.  I believe they have invested and are working towards making their standard much better.  Have had some good experiences with their auditors to the AIB standard in recent years as well.

After years of complaining about them, I came to like their audit and approach.  After all, what use is a system if it's not implemented?  What I didn't like so much is the scoring seems arbitrary at times.  I once went on a training course to understand it.  2 hours later I was a bit wiser but any scoring that needs that much explanation is a bit annoying.  Secondly in the UK at least they seemed to have a mixture of the old guard who were very knowledgeable but sadly retiring and some very wet behind the ears auditors with only 2-3 years experience in industry.  Nice enough but not with as much pragmatism as those who came before.  But I think all audit bodies are suffering with the same problem.  Who wants to travel round the world auditing when the bodies treat you pretty shabbily?

Here is the Costco audit expectations

Thank you everyone for sharing! We already have the audit expectations and I've found that the audit template seems similar to the SQF audit template so I was curious about other's actual experiences. My company is also considering SQF and initially we thought we'd just do that, but Costco is less expensive and we do not have any customers that require a GFSI audit. I have not gone through a Costco or SQF audit so can only compare what I'm reading to my experiences with FSSC 22000. We did a self assessment using the SQF template but have not done one using the Costco template yet, we will look at that next. 

We are going for our first SQF audit with a Costco Addendum. As far as I have been able to tell they are very similar, with the exception that Costco tries to mandate x-ray/metal detection on the line, unless you write an exemption for it. 

One thing to note is the first audit is announced, but for Costco all subsequent audits are blind, and as of now it is a 90 day window, +/- 45 days from anniversary date. From what I have been told it used to be 60 days but that was a recent change.

After years of complaining about them, I came to like their audit and approach.  After all, what use is a system if it's not implemented?  What I didn't like so much is the scoring seems arbitrary at times.  I once went on a training course to understand it.  2 hours later I was a bit wiser but any scoring that needs that much explanation is a bit annoying.  Secondly in the UK at least they seemed to have a mixture of the old guard who were very knowledgeable but sadly retiring and some very wet behind the ears auditors with only 2-3 years experience in industry.  Nice enough but not with as much pragmatism as those who came before.  But I think all audit bodies are suffering with the same problem.  Who wants to travel round the world auditing when the bodies treat you pretty shabbily?

Our biggest issue with the AIB audit scoring is the double hit you get where there is a finding on the inspection then you get hit again in programs. I understand this if it is a serious or recurring issue, but finding one small area that someone missed dusting does not mean your have an issue with your entire cleaning program. This comes down to auditor experience and how much of a hardaxx they want to be.

Our biggest issue with the AIB audit scoring is the double hit you get where there is a finding on the inspection then you get hit again in programs. I understand this if it is a serious or recurring issue, but finding one small area that someone missed dusting does not mean your have an issue with your entire cleaning program. This comes down to auditor experience and how much of a hardaxx they want to be.

Yeah I hear you!  I found most of the time that I agree with the score but just not how they got there.

We are going for our first SQF audit with a Costco Addendum. As far as I have been able to tell they are very similar, with the exception that Costco tries to mandate x-ray/metal detection on the line, unless you write an exemption for it. 

 

One thing to note is the first audit is announced, but for Costco all subsequent audits are blind, and as of now it is a 90 day window, +/- 45 days from anniversary date. From what I have been told it used to be 60 days but that was a recent change.

It's 90 days UNLESS you agree to all unannounced audits for SQF -then the 60 days remains          (if you're also SQF of course)

Here is the Costco audit expectations

This is an old version. The newest version is 2.0, effective date of April 1, 2023.

Costco has different audit requirements based on the scope of your operation (starts on pg. 7), and also has a list of Costco-approved CB's based on the region you supply (pg. 6).

A big thing is the x-ray equipment requirement. If your facility doesn't implement an x-ray, you need to provide Costco with an explanation from a qualified individual explaining why there is not one in place (pg. 19).

Likewise, Costco requires you complete product trace of any items sold to Costco within a 2-hour window. SQF requires a 4-hour window, I believe. You also need to do at least 2 product traces on finished good, raw material, or packaging material (pg. 20).

Those are the two items that make Costco requirements stand out a bit from GFSI schemes, IMO. If you're getting certified to a GFSI scheme, you must also request a Costco addendum. 

I also suggest doing an internal audit to the Costco standard to ensure your food safety program addresses the requirements.

Hello,

Is there a separate Costco audit template to the 'COSTCO Food Safety & Quality Expectations' Manual? On the cover page of that document there is link to various documents including a Costco audit template, however the link doesn't work and my google searching comes up blank.

Thanks

I just tried it as well............the link is broken

I'm assuming Costco pulled it for revisions