Teaching Others to Audit

Hello!  I currently work for a beverage company and we utilize co-packer's for all of our production.  This past year instead of having onsite presence my company implemented an auditing program of all of our co-packers and warehouse network.  I was able to take the lead in developing our template and traveled to the facilities to try it out and do an initial audit.  Now I am tasked with training more members of my department to be involved in the auditing process.  Anyone know any good ways to go about training people to audit?  We don't have our own plant to practice in.  All my team members are HACCP certified as a start.  Would PCQI be a good option as a general overview of prp programs?  Or should I pick a standard such as SQF so they can complete multiple trainings?  Just wondering what auditors do other then shadowing someone.  We can do that a bit but I have all different backgrounds so would like to get everyone good food safety knowledge.  Thanks!

I am sorry I am not quite understanding...How you been trained in How to Audit?

Are you wanting to have all your co-packers be certified to the SQF standard?

Yes I am an SQF Advanced Practitioner and have hands on experience with auditing from previous positions.  I'm trying to figure out how to train people who may not have a quality background in food safety auditing without having a facility to practice in and give them a good understanding of how food safety systems work and what they should be looking for when visiting facilities.    

If you are looking to train a team on auditing there should be a focus a some key elements.

1. Get folks formally trained in regulatory aspects.  As you mentioned HACCP and PCQI are good starting points as these provide a base of knowledge. 

2. Get some internal auditing course underway.  There are plenty of resources on this including on this site.  

3. Train on any certification standard.  If SQF use the checklist pulled directly from the SQFI site.  If other standards get copies of them and train your folks on it.  

4. If reviewing multiple sites what is different/specific about each that need an area of focus or attention?  This element can be brought in to your auditing program and also be trained on with your team.  

5. Real auditing scenarios could also be used by asking the co-manufacturers if you could bring other staff along for training purposes.  This would be the shadow audit you mentioned.  

Your end goal should be to have a well rounded team that are all speaking the same language, consistent, fair, and able to be objective.  

This is just my take and essentially how I have built myself up in auditing and the tools I use to develop teams.  

All the best!  

I'd go and get a Consultant with Auditing background (hmm, like me, only I am booked out right now for an extended time period), contact one of your co-packers and all go as a group with the Consultant running the Audit in order to train your associates and then the next one the Consultant shadows and so forth and so on.

Most certainly get an Internal Auditor Training program.

While you may want to use an SQF auditing format to run your audits I would suggest a standard 3rd party type audit and/or a custom one that an auditing company or consultant could cobble together for you to use that is centered on the beverage industry.

I don't think it's appropriate to train folks without a food quality background to audit your co-packers

that sort of sounds like me running a fiscal audit because my CFO gave a 30 minute course

Just adding onto what Scampi said - I must have missed the part that you want to train non-food people on auditing.

It is intensive enough to train people on auditing but almost impossible to train non-food people to become auditors - it really is quite the undertaking.

I almost replied to this yesterday but got way too wordy (shocker for me, I know).  But I agree with Scampi and consultant above, training non-food background folks to audit is a big jump.  You'll want to train them not just on how to spot problems via an audit, but really, they need a full training of all the base PRP's that go into a food business.  They need to understand food regulations.  They realistically need some experience seeing how a plant operates in a food manufacturing capacity.  And then, once they've got a solid grasp of how things work, they can be considered for how to actually audit and uphold these principals effectively.

I agree with the above commenters, so I'll try to keep it short with a metaphor.

Food businesses are like cars. Many moving parts all working together to make it happen.

Engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, cooling  

Regulations, SOPs, equipment, maintenance, recordkeeping, etc...

A nearly infinite number of things to inspect, analyze, and monitor.

It takes a lot of experience to make a mechanic.

It will take more than 45 hours of HACCP and PCQI training to make an auditor.

Thank you everyone!  Appreciate the suggestions.  Trying to put together a solid plan for my director.  It's definitely a unique situation and I know it will take a variety of trainings to get everyone on the same path.