Recently, one of the authors was in a conversation with a food processing client. The client stated that they used a third party audit firm to conduct sanitation audits of suppliers on their behalf. The audit report gave a glowing account of the operational effectiveness of the supplier; however, when the client visited the supplier several weeks after the audit, they encountered numerous audit findings. So, why didn't the audit report agree with the observed performance? The fact is that criticismsoften made about third party audits may provide the answer. These criticism's point out that most of the auditor's time on-site is spent reviewing procedures, checking for signatures on records and talking with managers, with only limited amounts of time spent on the plant floor observing manufacturing and talking with the operators.
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