Question

Question 5

Competence is one of the general principles for establishing the requirements for bodies and personnel providing audit and certification of management systems. Discuss the necessary technical competence and attributes of a FSMS certification auditor.

Answer 1

Provisional Auditor

Ability to identify relevant to food chain category(ies): — PRP; — food safety hazards;

Ability to apply the application review requirements in ISO/IEC 17021, this Technical Specification, specific scheme rules and certification body procedures, including: — multisite sampling requirements and their application;

— audit duration requirements and their application; — evaluate number of applicable HACCP studies; —

ability to categorize an organization into a food category

Ability to determine if there are: — any specific seasonality factors related to the organization and its food category or products; — specific cultural and social customs related to the categories and geographic areas to be assessed; — specific factors required to audit the FSMS, food product, process or service.

Ability to identify the competence required for the audit team, in accordance with this table and certification body procedures. Ability to identify: — food-borne microbiological hazards; — chemical hazards; — physical hazards; — allergens; — food safety labelling requirements; — food safety regulations that are relevant to the food chain category and their recognized control mechanisms.

Ability to evaluate the organization’s capacity to identify and meet applicable (country of production/co untry of destination) food safety regulation and labelling requirements

Auditor

Ability to identify relevant to food chain category(ies): — PRP; — food safety hazards;

Ability to apply the application review requirements in ISO/IEC 17021, this Technical Specification, specific scheme rules and certification body procedures, including: — multisite sampling requirements and their application; — audit duration requirements and their application; — evaluate number of applicable HACCP studies;—

ability to categorize an organization into a food category

Ability to determine if there are: — any specific seasonality factors related to the organization and its food category or products; — specific cultural and social customs related to the categories and geographic areas to be assessed; — specific factors required to audit the FSMS, food product, process or service.

Ability to identify the competence required for the audit team, in accordance with this table and certification body procedures.

Ability to identify: — food-borne microbiologica l hazards; — chemical hazards; — physical hazards;— allergens; — food safety labelling requirements; — food safety regulations that are relevant to the food chain category and their recognized control mechanisms.

Ability to evaluate the organization’s capacity to identify and meet applicable (country of production/co untry of destination) food safety regulation and labelling requirements

Lead Auditors

Ability to identify relevant to food chain category(ies): — PRP; — food safety hazards;

Ability to apply the application review requirements in ISO/IEC 17021, this Technical Specification, specific scheme rules and certification body procedures, including: — multisite sampling requirements and their application; — audit duration requirements and their application; — evaluate number of applicable HACCP studies; — ability to categorize an organization into a food category

Ability to determine if there are: — any specific seasonality factors related to the organization and its food category or products; — specific cultural and social customs related to the categories and geographic areas to be assessed; — specific factors required to audit the FSMS, food product, process or service.

Ability to identify the competence required for the audit team, in accordance with this table and certification body procedures.

Ability to identify: — food-borne microbiologica l hazards; — chemical hazards; — physical hazards; — allergens; — food safety labelling requirements; — food safety regulations that are relevant to the food chain category and their recognized control mechanisms.

Ability to evaluate the organization’s capacity to identify and meet applicable (country of production/co untry of destination) food safety regulation and labelling requirements