SQF changes effective in July 2014 included unannounced audits. I have a question about the 3-year "audit cycles" in the policy so that I can know whether we are required in our next recertification audit.
We have been certified to SQF for a few years. We had our recertification audit March 2014, before the change. Going forward, I had assumed that would give us 2015, 2016, and 2017 to choose unannounced audit. But I could be wrong. We may have to do this at our recertification audit in 2016? Below is from the SQF Final Rule:
11. If a supplier had their first certification audit in November 2012 and November 2014 will be their third cycle, does this audit need to be unannounced or is the unannounced audit something that is going into effect starting with 2014 and moving forward.
The unannounced audit requirement will begin with the implementation of the SQF Code, edition 7.2 on July 3, 2014. That means that the first three certification cycles would be 2014 - 2017 regardless of their initial certification audit date.
Forgive my confusion between audit dates and audit cycles. Can anyone tell me whether we will be required to do unannounced audit in 2016? Or is 2017 still on the table?