Suggestions on how to conduct an Internal Audit of HACCP?

Dear all,

A non conformity was raised by my external auditor of HACCP regarding internal audit of HACCP:

The internal audit was not carried out for some processes such as water safety, supplier evaluation & testing programme.

Our internal auditor comes for internal audit twice yearly and he uses a checklist for cleanliness, PRPs and CCPs. Any suggestion of how to improve please?

Thanks

Hello Rudra,

Is this a HACCP only audit, or an audit of your food safety plan to some benchmark/standard? Is the external auditor an independent third party (you or someone pays them) or is it second party (a customer)? If it's a third party audit, typically they will have no qualms helping you bring yourself into compliance and would be happy to give you suggestions on how to improve. That would be my first step in your case. 

Dear all,

A non conformity was raised by my external auditor of HACCP regarding internal audit of HACCP:

The internal audit was not carried out for some processes such as water safety, supplier evaluation & testing programme.

Our internal auditor comes for internal audit twice yearly and he uses a checklist for cleanliness, PRPs and CCPs. Any suggestion of how to improve please?

Thanks

hi Rudra,

It seems that yr designated internal auditor has an incomplete checklist. The scope/details of the latter are typically determined by the relevant FS Standard as noted in Post 2.

Can you supply a little more context ?

Dear all,

Thanks for your feedback.

Its a NC raised by an external auditor regarding the internal audit process/ methodology. Its an HACCP based audit against codex alimentarius.

However, my internal auditor just does an inspection of the site, PRPs and CCPs. This doesnot satisfy the external auditor. 

Thanks

Dear all,

Thanks for your feedback.

Its a NC raised by an external auditor regarding the internal audit process/ methodology. Its an HACCP based audit against codex alimentarius.

However, my internal auditor just does an inspection of the site, PRPs and CCPs. This doesnot satisfy the external auditor. 

Thanks

Hi Rudra,

So what was the specific NC ? eg IA missed some PRPs, not enough PRPs in use for haccp plan, some aspects omitted like Traceability, recall, etc

A typical fail-safe checklist for your own internal audit is to -

(1) look at each clause in yr Code/Standard (I assume this exists) for which you are being audited on.

(2) Rewrite all the clauses in a question format. (= Checklist for internal audit).

(3) Ensure that responses for the requirements of every clause are documented as having been satisfactorily  verified in checklist in (2).

It appears to me that the external auditor is not happy that the internal auditor is not auditing the entirety of the system, the process flow of the system, and/or a critical point.  So you will need a few things, first I would want to know exactly what is being missed, then train your internal auditor to hit all of the points that the external auditor is looking for.  You should be doing a full HACCP review at least annually unless there is a failure, a regulation change or product is introduced that warrants a review to the system.  It also would not be a bad idea to have your internal auditor go through an auditing program to keep up to speed with proper ways to review your system against what is expected by your third party.  NSF offers something pretty good.  it is what I went through when I needed a cert and wanted to get it right.

https://www.nsflearn...nal-auditor-sqf

Cheers!

Hi Charles and all,

Thanks for your feedback.

Yes Charles, he missed  many PRPs, some aspects omitted like Traceability, recall, etc, testing plan, purchasing. He did just a site inspection on hygiene.

I already discussed with my internal auditor and requested him to re work on his audit checklist by taking into consideration your recommendations. I think ISO 9011 standard shall help him to get a better understanding about auditing.

thanks you all for your precious comments,

R