Christopher Brown has been appointed as a junior auditor of Apex Chartered Accountants (ACA). One of his first tasks is to review the firm's audit clients (all public interest entities) to ensure that independence requirements of APES 110 (Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants) are being met. His review has revealed the following:

ACA has recently been appointed the auditor of Delicious Foods Limited (DFL).The senior-in-charge, Andrew Reynolds, and an assistant observed the inventory stocktake. On completion of the inventory observation, Karla White, Delicious Foods' accountant, informed Andrew that the shipping supervisor had a small gift for him and the assistant. Andrew asked Karla what the gift was for, and Karla responded that they had always given small gifts of food items to their previous auditors on completion of the inventory observation. Andrew estimates that the value of the food is less than $100.

1. Identify potential threat(s) to independence & recommend safeguards (if any) to reduce the independence threat(s) identified.
2. Provide an objective assessment of whether audit independence can be achieved.