11 replies to this topic

[RHND]

Hello Everyone !,

 

So a bit of background. My current facility is on the path to become SQF certified, in February we scheduled a pre assessment in early April. In March, we were told the auditor is unable to perform the audit on the requested date, so another date was selected in mid April.

 

1 day before the pre assessment audit, the CB cancelled the audit again, siting auditor unavailability. The new date was end of April. 

 

We eventually completed the pre assessment, and scheduled the certification audit scheduled for end of July.  We made complaints to the CB regarding the 2 prior cancellations , and was assured that cancelations were rare and this wont happen again. 

 

Imagine our surprise to be notified by the CB 5 days before the certification audit that it was again cancelled due to auditor unavailability. 

 

Prior to working at the current facility I've gone through may SQF audits, and haven't had any issues like this, including during COVID. 

 

Current CB seems to not care since the issue is repeating itself 3 times this year so far. I think I'll need to address the issue directly with SQF as well. 

 

Has this happened to anyone? trying to gauge if this is just an issue with my current CB or if this is a widespread issue going on across the entire industry ? Also if you have reliable CB recs, I'm open to suggestions as well ! located in the USA. 

 

Thanks for your time ! 

RH

   

Has this happened to anyone? trying to gauge if this is just an issue with my current CB or if this is a widespread issue going on across the entire industry ?

[Lynx42]

It happened to us for one of our organic audits, but our GAP and initial SQF audits were fine (different CB's).  Our organic CB pushed us from April to May (with ~1 week notice) then same day pushed us to July.  In late June they cancelled July with no projected date, then a couple days later rescheduled for the same July dates, but with a different auditor.  

 

Too bad we don't get a discount for them cancelling when we have to pay if we are the ones to cancel.  

[SQFconsultant]

Never had a cancelation, so 3 times sounds real rough.

 

I'd tell em to go F off and find yourself another company.

[Tony-C]

I'd tell em to go F off and find yourself another company.

 

Subtle Glenn!

 

 Subtlety.png   777.42KB   0 downloads

 

But yep I agree,

 

Tony

[GMO]

Agree, I'd change CB.  I did have it in Covid with BRCGS CB SAI Global.  They were trying to insist in a factory of a couple of thousand people that we should have had zero cases in the previous two weeks.  Obviously we were social distancing, masked up and sending anyone home with symptoms etc and cases were not high at the time but after the first cancellation for that reason I switched bodies to one who would audit if we had cases but were following the law.

 

This probably does speak to issues within all CBs at the moment.  Auditor availability is poor.  I also firmly believe (despite arguing with a former auditor otherwise recently) that auditing is not a career you go into straight from university.  You need to have a few battle scars and a grey area which comes from experience.  But CBs cannot (in the main) attract these people anymore because they pay like crap, they sometimes don't pay for travel time either.  Also there is a general shortage of people in the industry.  Covid caused a lot of 50 somethings to retire early or change to a completely different career, it caused immigration changes and somehow out of the back of that at least what I'm seeing is a huge lack of experienced technical people.  Or at least Technical people who can put up with some of the idiots running food businesses nowadays.  Fewer technical people means fewer auditors.

 

At least this CB might learn the value of having more auditors on their books to cope with changes in manning and employing a few contractors to flex to cover if needed.  But prices will probably end up going up for FBOs.

[kfromNE]

What country are you in. Depending on the country, those of us on the forum could help lead you to a reliable company. Though we just switched after 5 years due to our CB doing something similar. 

[G M]

A few have been delayed, but no cancelations in the last few years. None of the SQF though.  There has been a general shortage of people willing and qualified to be auditors.

 

It sounds as if the CB you're dealing with has auditors leaving or canceling on them resulting in your situation.

Edited by G M, 29 July 2025 - 04:04 PM.

[Scampi]

Reach out to LeAnn Chubbof at SQFI and let her know       sorry, don't have the email address at my fingertips

 

then find a new CB--this one is yanking your chain

[knc25]

I have used FSNS in the past, but currently use CICS and I have never had a cancelation. CICS is very pleasant and easy to work with. 

[jfrey123]

We use FSNS for upwards of 12 sites each year, never had an issue with scheduling.  What a bummer that they've cancelled three times on you, that has to be affecting customer relations at this point.

[RHND]

What country are you in. Depending on the country, those of us on the forum could help lead you to a reliable company. Though we just switched after 5 years due to our CB doing something similar. 

 
I'm located in USA, and we're in the processing of looking for a new CB. 

[GreyeagleA]

We changed CBs and the first audit with them went well.  The second time around we had the same auditor and they rescheduled our audit three times and when they did come to audit us, they were quite distracted and not focused on our facility.  We were going to have the same auditor for next year and we respectfully asked for someone else instead.   We're hoping that this isn't the case with this CB and if we have a similar experience again we'll be looking for a new CB