Good Afternoon - I hope this communication finds everyone well. I am looking for some direction / input from the IFSQN community on the topic sharing Supplier information with Customers.
We received requests from two (2) of our Customers to supply them with copies of our Raw Material Supplier's audits. I can not find that this is a regulatory requirement but is a requirement of the Customer's food safety program. Unless my thought process is way out of line, I am in the mind set that our Third Party Audit Certification should be sufficient in providing the Customer with documentation that they need to ensure that the product(s) supplied by us to them meet all applicable regulations/standards.
The Customer has copies of both our Audit Certificate, Audit Report & Findings. The Audit Report & Findings lists the Supplier Management standards required by the Audit Scheme and shows that no deficiencies were noted. We have on file with the Customers a LOG and COA for the product(s) supplied to them.
I have offered to provide the Customers with a copy of our written Supplier Approval & Control Program, that show that exact standards that our Raw Material Suppliers are required to meet. I have attempted to explain to the Customers that we may have several Suppliers for one item and that I would need to provide each Supplier's information to them for each product that we provide to them and that is a burdensome task. However, they are being adament about being provided with a copy of the Raw Material Supplier's Audit.
In an effort to resolve the issue, I contacted the Raw Material Suppliers to request consent to release the Audit information to the Customer's - some agreed and some did not. Two of the Supplier's would not agree due to the fact that the Customer requesting is their competitor.
In addition to the above conundrum, the Customers requesting the copies of the Supplier audits also require that the audits are uploaded electronically to their system, there is a fee charged for each upload. Not that this is a huge deal, however if all customers start requiring this it could get costly.
Any insight, input or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Kelly Warren