Ecolab Food Safety Institute Q&A: Auditing Approved Suppliers

Editor's note: The following is the latest from Ecolab Food Safety Institute's "Questions from the Field" enewsletter.

Q.  Our spice blend manufacturing facility is in the middle of our initial certification audit to the SQF Code (ed. 7.1). While reviewing my approved supplier program, the SQF auditor told me that I had to audit every one of my approved suppliers. I have a lot of approved suppliers and this seems excessive. Do I really have to audit all of my approved suppliers?

A.  No, an SQF certified facility is not required to conduct audits of all of their approved suppliers unless the facility writes that into their supplier approval/monitoring program. In essence 2.4.5.4 states that the certified facility is required to establish criteria for the suppliers and the incoming goods and services received, and then assure that the approved suppliers are meeting that criteria. How the assurance is carried out is completely up to the certified site. Some facilities choose to audit their approved suppliers on a yearly basis, and others only do this for their high-risk suppliers or for new suppliers as part of their initial approval program. Others rely on surveys and documentation, and others rely on testing incoming materials. There is a wide variety of methods for assuring that approved suppliers are meeting performance criteria, and a certified supplier must have evidence that this is being carried out (records!).