We recently had our initial SQF audit, completed all the corrective actions, and got the final report. There are a number of discrepancies that I am not sure if I need to get my manager to address with SQF or can ignore. These were all clauses we were compliant on and none of them affected our score. Will these come back to haunt us in future audits? We are an ambient storage 3PL.
- 2.1.1 - He mentions a monthly luncheon, a gift card program for reporting food safety incidents and a weekly meeting of all employees and the Production Manager. - We do not have these programs, and as we are a storage only facility, we do not have a production manager.
- 2.2.1 - He mentions a Quality Assurance Supervisor, and later in the report mentions a Quality Manager. - We have a Food Safety Coordinator (me) who is also the SQF Practitioner and HACCP Team Lead.
- 2.4.1 - He mentions the California Health Code and that we review all production records before shipping. He also says he reviewed a PCQI certificate from 2022. - We are not in California, do not produce anything, and are exempt from the PQCI requirements. I am the first person who has been in a primarily food safety role and didn't start until mid-2023.
- 2.6.3 - He mentions Recall Team, a legal counselor, initiating and investigating recalls. - We do not own any of the product stored with us and our Recall SOP clearly states that we assist customers in the recall process, but will never initiate one.
- 2.8.1 - says we use blue labels for allergen identification. - No. None of our customers color coordinate allergens, and as most of it is finished products very few label their allergens on the outer packaging or require segregation in storage.
- 12.2.5 - Mentions a "Cleaning Chemical Usage SOP" and protocols for measuring concentrations. - We have a Cleaning SOP and a Chemical Control Policy, but nothing named what he put in quotes. We also only use RTU sanitizers so our sanitation crew never has to mix or check concentrations.
- 12.3.4 - mentions our Driver Lobby and "Driver Sign-In Log." - We have a guard shack with a couple portable toilets for drivers to use. I have only once seen a driver actually come into the building, and he had to get buzzed in at the main entrance like all visitors.
- 12.3.5 - Mentions a changing room with storage for street clothing, access through a room separate from the processing area, and a designated outer garment storage area while using the facilities (inaccurate), even after mentioning in 12.3.3 that street clothing is permitted and there are no exposed products on-site (accurate).
There are a number of other discrepancies (mentioning an outside eating area), that I didn't think would matter as much, but these kind of worry me if our next auditor will have access to these notes during our next audit.
The auditor was very unprofessional in my opinion. Every time my boss left the room he would complain about not getting paid enough based on the time it took to write up his reports, about the previous place he had audited, and he took several personal calls. Stopped the audit for half an hour to get his flight changed, then asked for lunch before he would do the closing meeting.
Edited by Lynx42, Yesterday, 11:19 PM.
