Are 3 month required documents for SQF Audit?

Hi,

We will be starting our production soon. We want to start documenting to be prepared for GFSI audit (SQF audit). What are the required records that we need to keep? Where do I start the record keeping process from?

I dont think I ever attempted to put a list like this together.   Its too plant specfic in many ways.  

If you search the SQFI standard for "record" you will get a partial list.  Please dont rely on this alone, it falls short of evertything that is needed.  

When people read the code/standard, I encourage them to ask themself  "how am I going to prove to an auditor that we meet the particular clause?"  It may be an observation, a policy / procedure, a record,  or a combination of these.   I think this is a better approach than trying to work off of a check list.   It ill also help gain confidence on how you are going to "defend" your program when the day comes.  

3 months is the bare minimum.

Have you written your Food Safety Plan?  What documents does it list?  That is the BARE MINIMUM you'll need to have

Supplier Approval Program?

Pest Control Plan and inspection reports
 

Water sampling?

Titrations for sanitation

The list is endless

Sanitation SOP

Net Weight Policy

Lot Tracking

Pest Control Program

GMP Training

Glass Program

Temperature Control Monitoring

Allergen Program

Vehicle Inspection and Temperature Monitoring/Truck seal

Environmental Testing

FIFO Policy

Glove Policy

Pre-Operation Swabbing Policy

Raw Material Verification Policy

Rework Policy

Vendor Approval Policy

Back Flow monitoring

Master Sanitation cleaning process

Color Coding Policy

Customer Complaint Policy

Document Retention

Managerial Responsibilities Policy

Recall Program

Scale Calibration

Good lists above, but as stated the records you need will be plant specific depending on your programs.  The "Say what you do; Do what you say" mantra is legitimate, explicitly so in record keeping.  If you write an SOP that states "We check this thing every 2 hours," you'd better have forms or a log from every day showing that it was checked every 2 hours.  If your SOP states "we perform this task weekly," better have a record of it.

You'll want to start the record keeping for production the day you start producing.  For the sanitation of your plant prior to that production date, start documenting all your cleanings now.  Same with whatever you've decided for internal auditing of the facility and your programs.  With only 3 months of active production to sort through, I'd expect your auditor to breeze through that and have time to look closer at things like supplier approval documents, management reviews, all of the back end work you've done to establish your SOP's and some review of how they've been performing in those first months of start-up.