We are a small food contract manufacturer (approx 15 employees) that is SQF certified per client requirements. We have our next unannounced SQF audit period beginning in 3 weeks. Today our SQF practitioner of 1yr resigned unexpectedly (effective immediately), saying they accepted a position for mid-six figures elsewhere and not a figure that we could reasonably compete with.
We run just 1-2 production lines per day and therefore we've only ever required one full-time SQF practitioner/QA manager. Because we are small at only 15 employees, there really is no redundancy built into our QA processes nor do we have a backup who can quickly take the reins. We therefore need to find, hire, onboard and familiarize a new Practitioner in only 2 weeks, which will likely be impossible especially given the holidays.
What are our options to allow us time to find a new SQF Practitioner? Can we delay the audit?