Risk Assessment Clarification for SQF Audit Extensions during COVID-19

During these extraordinary times, SQFI has strived to meet the needs of our clients by granting over 600 certificate extensions to date.

As our industry continues to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect more extension requests to come through. To that extent, we have published a guideline for SQF sites and stakeholders to understand the process of conducting a risk assessment in the event that sites require a certificate extension.

The intent of this guideline is to outline SQFI’s expectations on when and how to conduct a risk assessment for sites that are unable to undergo an on-site recertification audit in their audit window due to COVID-19. This is not a change to SQF procedures, but a clarification based on the review of risk assessments submitted over the past month.

This guideline will address the following:

1. When to conduct a risk assessment.
2. Conducting a COVID-19 Risk Assessment.
3. Remote Activities
4. Process Flow for Determining the Risk for Extending the Certificate