Can we use a customer audit as part of our internal audit program under SQF

Hello everyone,

I work in a small company and I am the only person in the Food Safety/Quality department. I would like to clarify:

• Can we use a customer audit as part of our internal audit program under SQF if the audit covers all the system's requirements?

• Do we need any official documents from the customer auditor (such as an internal audit training certificate, etc), or is it sufficient to record their name, company, date, scope, and findings?

Thank you for your advice!

You need your own Internal Auditing program.

No, I don't think so. 

You need to have trained personnel do the internal audits. They should audit areas that they are not directly responsible for. Kind of along the 'extra pair of eyes' mindset of looking at areas.

• Can we use a customer audit as part of our internal audit program under SQF if the audit covers all the system's requirements?

No.  I'd be surprised if a customer audited you to every aspect of the SQF scope, but even if they did it does not meet the requirement for you to self audit yourself under 2.5.4.

• Do we need any official documents from the customer auditor (such as an internal audit training certificate, etc), or is it sufficient to record their name, company, date, scope, and findings?

In all companies I've worked for, we record EXTERNAL audits (customer and the such) under our CAPA trackers.  We list each external finding independently of our internal findings on the list, and still go through the normal process of investigation and corrective action where merited.

No I wouldn't.

For all of the reasons above but also for the fact that a lot of companies have their "best face" on when a customer visits and (you hope) are a bit less showy for an internal audit.  I've also seen a lot of bad internal audits too but internally the point is you're super tough and super thorough AND you know where to look.  Customers are a fresh pair of eyes which is great, they may see things you miss but will miss far more that you see.

So even if you could get the training records etc I wouldn't.  

Hi kknust,

To add to previous posts your internal auditors do not have to be in the food safety/quality department you can use staff from other departments providing that they have auditor training and have a reasonable knowledge of the products/operations

Kind regards,

Tony