13 replies to this topic

[elvispuig98]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently within the window for an unannounced SQF audit, and I would like to hear about other people’s experiences.

For those who have already gone through an unannounced SQF audit, how was your experience? When did the auditor arrive? What day of the week and what time did they show up? Did you receive any notification at all before they arrived, or did they simply walk into the facility?

How long did the audit take? Was the auditor more strict than during a regular announced audit? Were there any areas they focused on more heavily because the audit was unannounced?

I’d also be interested to know how far into your audit window they showed up — early, around the middle, or toward the end.

Any experiences, tips, or things that surprised you during the process would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[TimG]

My most recent was in the first week of the window. They've never been much different than announced audits in my experience. Don't make any plans you can't immediately cancel while you're in the audit window.

[Scampi]

within the first 3 weeks of the window

 

we lucked out----there was an error in the NSF portal so we assumed it was correct and it was  

no prior communication, just arrived    audit itself was no different

[jfrey123]

I haven't been on site for any of them, but I think 8 of my facilities have had unannounced in the past 3 years.  It's truly been hit or miss, one showed up day one of the window while most others seemed to come in the second half of the period.  Our sites are all full two-day audits, so if we don't see the auditor by 9:30am on Thursday we typically sign that breath of relief for the weekend.  They won't warn you at all: they will enter or knock on your front door between 8-9am, present their credentials, and expect to be led to your meeting area to begin in a timely manner.

 

They'll be as strict as a normal SQF auditor.  The whole purpose of the unannounced audit it to catch you off guard and prevent those "audit pre-cleans" and best behaviors that don't reflect the reality of your day-to-day.  They usually like to unpack and do a quick sign in for your team, and then they'll usually ask for a facility walk immediately (before you can send all your runners out ahead of them to polish the floors).

 

We got lucky one time in predicting an auditor's arrival:  Two of my sites are within about a 3-hour drive from each other and both were in their window.  Auditor showed up at one site on a Tuesday, so we figured they'd do both sites on the same trip.  Sure enough they did.

[MDDF]

Have my first sqf this year, but not unannounced, but have been doing FSSC22k for the last twenty, and unannounced audits don't worry me in the least.   We do things the same whether an auditor is here or not, and if unannounced worries someone, I would say it shouldn't, unless you have something to worry about, which means ya ain't doin it right.

[Amandeep Kaur Kahlon]

we had our unannounced SQF audit within 3 weeks of window last year...I was on mat leave and my manager had surgery, and VP food safety was on vacation at the same time. I got call from my company at 11am that if I could come over at 1pm and help them to get through audit. I came with my 7 months old and admin staff tried their best to take care of her as I had no arrangements done for childcare in that short period of time.

I must say we got the best auditor for an unannounced audit as he was trying to work with us as much as possible. Audit held for 2 days and we passed with good score. I can never forget that audit all of my life.

[GMO]

Not SQF but with BRCGS I've been noticing a lot are towards the end of the window this year. I suspect it's a bit due to the lack of decent auditors and the general issue with high absence in lots of organisations. 

 

When we moved to unannounced, the first one was nerve wracking but it was no harder than an announced audit. The one thing I recommend with unannounced is making sure that you have a few people who know where the documented systems are or set up your FSQMS so they're easy to find (good practice anyway) as there is nothing more frustrating than knowing you have something but not being able to find it. 

[vkul84]

Our auditor showed up just over halfway through the audit window, the audit itself was ok, not really different than announced ones with the exception that the walk around started almost immediately. We scored only one point lower than our announced audits. 

 

Murphy's law, they might show up on the worst day......at least thats what happened to me! I woke up with a horrific migraine, went to work though since I would need to be there for an audit.......I was really struggling, made coffee......forgot to put the pot under the machine in my migraine haze, and came back to the conference room to see coffee all over the floor. I was saying to other staff, thank goodness the auditor doesn't seem to be coming today, I'm going to wait 15 more minutes then go home and have a sick day......as soon as I said that I looked out the window and saw an unfamilar car pull into the parking lot.........lol.

 

but I survived and managed to make it through the audit!

[Jimimacintire]

I had one come on the last day of the window. So we pretty much knew he was coming.

[Bo16]

One was on the last 2 days; one was in the beginning of our window; one was on a scheduled (then of course unscheduled) training day.  One was the best auditor we ever had, and we asked for him back, one was one of the worst auditors we asked that he not come back.  The good news was that they still represented our company as being well prepared on any day.  That is the goal!

I do wish the window was shorter, especially as a small company.

[QABakery]

For our last unannounced audit the auditor didn't show up until the very last day of the window. He claimed he "had no idea" it was the last day, but I'm not sure how that would make sense....

[MDDF]

One was on the last 2 days; one was in the beginning of our window; one was on a scheduled (then of course unscheduled) training day.  One was the best auditor we ever had, and we asked for him back, one was one of the worst auditors we asked that he not come back.  The good news was that they still represented our company as being well prepared on any day.  That is the goal!

I do wish the window was shorter, especially as a small company.

I agree the window is too big, and it's moronic.   Very hard on small companies with one practitioner and one backup, and not hard only on our work life, it's hard on our personal lives.  There's absolutely no reason they couldn't make it a month or two and still maintain the element of 'surprise'.   

 

I had a whole page typed up on my last audit and the bs NSF put me thru, but I digress.   Suffice it to say I'm not a fan of NSF, and they were fired by me last year, which I must admit felt good.....

 

[Bo16]

Our auditor that showed up on the last 2 days told us we were lucky because if they weren't there it would be a major finding, I bluntly told him it would be their major finding, not ours!  (I really liked this auditor, logical, direct, fair, good technical writing and the report was a complete snapshot of our systems.  Our customers valued the report and asked us very few additional questions.)  

[Hoosiersmoker]

We discovered there are only a couple of packaging qualified auditors in our part of the country. One is in his 70's and not likely to be auditing much longer. That being the case, if I request an audit in January, our audit is at the start of our window, If I wait a month or three, it tends to be near the end of the window due to the lack of qualified auditors. My worst case was a month or so ago when an auditor just showed up and told our receptionist he was here to investigate an anonymous tip in FEBRUARY about multiple violations including "numerous uncontrolled roof leaks and many sanitation violations". Also in February, we were contacted by OSHA regarding multiple safety violations. These were from a disgruntled former employee. The OSHA "visit" was via email asking for pictures and we never heard about that one again. The SQF auditor popped in, asked to be let in and when I got there (2 minutes later) I walked him straight to the floor and asked what he wanted to see. We had one section of roof (about 40 years old) that has some leaks but we use 10" square collection tarps and covered barrels to collect the water so I took him straight there and showed him what we do in the event of a leak. His response was "those are leaks but not uncontrolled". It was what he expected to see if there is a roof leak. Coincidentally, the roofing contractor had come the day before to set up scaffolding to access the roof for total replacement! We showed him the contract and the dates for starting the day before his visit! I walked him through the rest of all 3 buildings and showed him whatever he wanted to see. He commented a couple of times that our facility looked great. I also found out that, since our regular auditor couldn't perform our audit this year because he'd already done 3 years, he lived 1 hour away. I asked what he was doing the first week of December and, puzzled, he looked at his schedule and found out HE would be our auditor this year! He truly got to see us with no warning and couldn't find any issues except one of our warehouse bathrooms had a damaged "Employees must wash hands before returning to work" signs. I think our audit in December will go just fine! And our regular auditor, who is retiring soon, might only do one more audit next year then I'll request the new guy!