Audits, internal audits and monitoring

What are the steps to prepare for a food safety audit?

A practical order:

• Confirm the standard, its current edition and your scope.
• Run a gap assessment clause by clause, looking for missing evidence as well as missing procedures.
• Fix the gaps that matter most first, and keep the records that prove it.
• Run an internal audit as a rehearsal, and close what it finds.
• Brief the people who will meet the auditor, and make sure records are easy to find.

Check my audit readiness

What is a gap assessment?

A clause-by-clause comparison of your system against the standard, recording for each requirement what evidence exists and what's missing. A good one grades each gap and tells you what to fix first.

What is an internal audit, and how often should we do one?

It's your own check of whether the system works as written, done by someone trained and independent of the area audited. GFSI schemes require internal audits on a schedule that covers the whole system, typically at least once a year, with higher-risk areas more often.

What happens if the auditor finds a nonconformance?

You'll need to correct it, find the root cause and take corrective action within the time the scheme sets, which depends on how serious it is. Some findings need evidence before the certificate is issued; critical findings can stop certification.

What is a root cause analysis?

A structured way of finding why a problem happened, not just what happened, so the fix stops it recurring. Methods such as the 5 Whys or a fishbone diagram are common; auditors look for a corrective action that matches the cause.

What is a mock recall, and how often should we do one?

A test of your recall and traceability procedures using a real product and lot, checking that you can trace it one step back and one step forward quickly and completely. GFSI schemes require recall procedures to be tested, generally at least once a year.

Source: CFIA: Regulatory requirements, traceability for food (opens in a new tab)

What is an environmental monitoring program?

A planned program of swabbing the production environment to check that sanitation and hygiene controls work, often for Listeria in ready-to-eat areas. Sites are usually divided into zones by distance from the product, with sampling frequency and response actions set for each zone.