Social Audits

Social audits are a great way to assess working conditions, from workers’ health and safety to basic human right respect, at suppliers’ sites. Every industry is nowadays confronted with such questions and need to seek compliance with international social standards in order to showcase their dedication to upholding human rights and monitor health and safety for their workers and ultimately gain customer trust.

SMETA: a world leading social audit

Sedex (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) is a global organization working to drive improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in supply chains of all kind of industries. SMETA is standing for Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit and is the standard for inclusion in Sedex.
Retailers and brands are more and more looking for partners who can demonstrate ethical trading and social responsibility. This is where third party providers such as Eurofins can help by auditing sites against the SMETA protocol.
Eurofins Assurance is a Sedex Affiliated Audit Company (AAC) working with a network of auditors who are approved to conduct SMETA audits. Our auditors provide support to customers and audited sites to help them reach high ethical standards and social compliance. With SMETA, audited sites are allowed to share one audit report with several customers, making this audit process smooth and easier to handle for everyone, audited site and buyer.

Our customers in the food industry can benefit from 2-pillar or 4-pillar SMETA audits:

SMETA 2-pillar audit:

• Health and safety
• Regulatory labour standards
• Additional factors:
  • Environmental assessment (basic)
  • Management systems
  • Entitlement to work
  • Subcontracting and homeworking practices

SMETA 4-pillar audit covers in addition to the above:

• Environmental assessment (detailed)
• Business ethics

Why choose Eurofins for social audits?

Our audit booking and report completion processes allow as little as a 2 weeks’ window for an audit booking and as little as 4 working days for report completion. Reports are then available on our digital platform, Eurofins Assurance OnLine.
As a Full Member Firm of the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA), we demonstrate expertise in quality social compliance audits. We work with an independent Quality and Ethics Team which ensures high quality in our processes and addresses potential ethical issues.
Our customers, whichever industry they are operating in, can expect the highest levels of consistency and integrity in our services.

Want to get an audit quotation? Ready to book an audit? Contact us

Our certification activities are provided by independent companies and separate from consulting activities. Such services are also presented and sold to clients separately, not in bundle or packaged format. Impartiality is safeguarded by Eurofins Assurance’ relevant policies to avoid conflicts of interest.