Quality Auditing Approaches

During conducting a Quality or food safety audit , there are several approaches or strategies that could be used according to the need of the audit.

1. Process Auditing:

• It tracks the flow of work from inputs to activities ending with outputs.
• It ensures  all process steps are linked and verifies integrity of the whole system.
• It needs careful thought and planning.
• It is advised to follow the trail of one example or sample throughout the whole process.

Ex : ISO 9001 - ISO 22000 - FSSC - FDA inspection.

2. Procedure approach:

• 
  It could be conducted within the process context or separately.
• It verifies whether a definite procedure is implemented and adhered to or not.
• Requires objective evidence to verify (as well as other approaches) , such as physical evidence , records or interviewing.

Ex: ISO 17025 , Internal audits with small scope.

3.Point in time approach:

• More used in physical audits.
• It requires connecting physical evidence with system gaps.
• Point of sampling and size of sample are crucial to the weight of the finding such as a finding directly affecting food safety or repeated incidents during audit.

Ex: AIB audit , GMP inspections.