Production and food safety records for a new facility
Hi all we have been SQF certified in our old small factory for some time now, but are in the process of bringing a whole new factory online. I know i will need to register the new facility for a new SQF audit. The question I have is the requirements for the audit are to have 90 days of production/food safety records to review but does that mean 90 days of full operation runs or would we be able to as soon as the plant was able and all of our procedures are in place to run a few hours a day to generate these required records.
Thanks for any help on this.
William
I would contact the certifying agency. they are probably several months out on scheduling. It might depend on if the new facility is taking the place of the old facility or if there will be two separate facilities.
It will be a whole new certification.
Hi William,
As you suspect you will need a new certification and 90 days of records. There is no stipulation on the amount of hours, so a few hours a day will be fine for certification. The relevant sections of the SQF Code are quoted below.
When you do ramp up production you will need to consider if the longer hours will affect the product and monitor accordingly.
PART A: Implementing and Maintaining the SQF Food Safety Code: Food Manufacturing
A2: Steps to Achieving SQF Certification (steps 1 – 10)
Step 5: Implement Your SQF System
Once you are satisfied that the policies, procedures, work instructions, and specifications are in place to meet the SQF requirements, you need to make sure that all documents are being followed and records are being kept demonstrating compliance to the relevant modules of the SQF Food Safety Code: Food Manufacturing.
SQFI recommends that a minimum of ninety (90) days of records is available before a site audit is conducted.
A3: Maintaining Your SQF Certification (steps 11 - 15)
Step 15: Changes to Site SQF Requirements
15.4 Relocation of Premises
SQF certification is site specific (refer to Step 3), so if you relocate your business premises,
your site’s certification does not transfer to the new site.
A successful certification of the new premises is required. An initial certification audit must be completed for the new facility.
Kind regards,
Tony
Thank you Tony that is what I had figured but I wanted to be sure. Even so I am going to reach out to my CB to see what they recommend.
Hi all we have been SQF certified in our old small factory for some time now, but are in the process of bringing a whole new factory online. I know i will need to register the new facility for a new SQF audit. The question I have is the requirements for the audit are to have 90 days of production/food safety records to review but does that mean 90 days of full operation runs or would we be able to as soon as the plant was able and all of our procedures are in place to run a few hours a day to generate these required records.
Thanks for any help on this.
William
Check with your CB about records. It was 90 days in the past, but I'm quite certain that the 90 days requirement has been removed for a more nebulous "proof that the program is fully implemented". I've had two initial certifications - one with 2 months of records and 1 with less than that of official SQF documentation. Individual CBs may have specific requirements. (And recently had SQF auditor training and they did repeat that as well that it's no longer 90 days, but enough records to demonstrate implementation).