New Costco requirements?

Received an email from Costco (I think) about their new audit requirements. Did anyone else receive this? It came from Notifications***AT***trx.costco.com which got flagged as spam.....

 

 

 

Global Food Safety Expectations for Costco Suppliers - Version 3.0

August 15, 2025

To: All Foods Facility and Supplier Contacts

Costco has released an update to the Global Food Safety Audit Expectations effective September 1st, 2025.

 

Please refer to the link below for the most current Food Safety Audit Expectations, Appendices, and Costco Audit Templates.

 

The Version 3.0 templates are auditable beginning September 1st, 2025 and should be fully implemented by the end of the calendar year.

 

https://my.syncplici...afety Documents

 

Please reach out to your regional food safety team with any questions.

 

Thank you,

Costco Wholesale

Didn't find anything in my spam filter for it, but sometimes they show up a day or two later.

It isn't spam. These go into effect next week. How kind of them to give us advance notice. <insert emoji of your choice>

Not spam. I confirmed with our CB some of the changes like now following scheme requirements about unannounced audits...even though these rules take effect September 1st and I know my unannounced audit is scheduled for after September 1st, my CB is keeping it unannounced because it was "scheduled" before September 1st. I clarified that it wasn't part of the 10% unannounced requirement they have to meet. Irritating. 

 

Anyway, the updates are real and it seems like their documents are much better organized and findable than they were in the past. 

hmm.I have questions:

  in the costco produce addendum v3 "

 

or would that below only apply for facility/ packhouses?

Foreign Material Control 3.1.2
Operations must have a comprehensive foreign material control plan in place for known and reasonably foreseeable physical hazards. In addition to GFSI requirements the foreign material control plan at a minimum must include:

- A policy that restricts the use of materials in product zones and areas that are not easily cleanable or prone to creating foreign material contamination. These materials include - but
are not limited to - foam rubber, any type of carpet, wood, non-food grade plastic, cardboard, tape, etc.. Clothes, towels, and other cleaning materials that pose a risk of contamination or adulteration shall not be used to remove dirt and debris from products.
Workers must not handle products in a manner that results in contamination or adulteration.

- A mechanism for employees to report concerns that includes specific language for foreign material contamination.

- Annual training on foreign material hazards for all employees at the facility, including instruction on the mechanism employees can use to report concerns

 

Does that mean costco wants to move away from wooden bins for harvesting? (still industry practice for apples and pears and the wood is sustainably harvested and certified).

 

Additionally are they now wanting growers to test their harvest equipment after 'cleaning'?  This does not seem reasonable for farmers.

At most it is testing the irrigation and potable water if used. or does that apply to warehouse only?

 

Microbiological Testing 3.1.9
All operations must have a written program in place to verify sanitation effectiveness for food contact surfaces. The program should be based on a risk assessment of the operation and validated, and shall not rely solely on visual checks for sanitation verification. Examples of acceptable verification include ATP monitoring or swabbing for TPC (Total Plate Count).

 

Foreign Material Control

Removed: mandatory x-ray requirement.

Added: must have a minimum metal detector or detector equivalent that works best for the product.

Removed: Glass and brittle map, list is still necessary

 

This one is kind of funny.  They must have had a lot of pushback on the xray devices.

This one is kind of funny.  They must have had a lot of pushback on the xray devices.

 

 

I saw that. I am going to wait for my audit to see if they are really backing away from X-Ray.  

Backing off on the 100% unannounced audits is nice as well, if you have the addendum to a GFSI audit. 

 

I'm curious what kind of feedback they got from the certifying bodies.  More audits could have been more income, but a big burden on an already limited pool of auditors.

Three cheers to @spinach for sharing, with compliments to the forum for independent verification for validity.  How great it is that two of my Costco sites have yet to hear this.  (I'll also admit I've also told the sites to independently verify)

We just had our unannounced SQF with Costco addendum. They did not ask about X-ray at all. 

I see there is a new Multi-Site section now as well.  Is anyone already doing these, or planning to?  Presume we can trust that these are accepted,  provided all criteria met and every site's individual audit report would get uploaded into Azzule? 

 

A single Costco Food Safety/GMP may be conducted for multiple sites where all of the following conditions are met:

○ All sites must operate under the same organization’s ownership/management.

○ All sites must operate under the same quality systems and procedures.

○ All sites must be located within 30 miles of the primary operation.

○ Manufacturing sites must operate the same HACCP/Food Safety Plan.

○ Off site storage sites may operate a unique HACCP plan for storage & distribution; all programs will need to be reviewed as part of the audit.

○ All sites included in the scope must be visited and inspected. All site addresses must be documented in the scope of the audit report.

○ All sites under the scope of the audit should be accounted for when calculating audit duration to ensure adequate additional time is allocated.