Introduction:
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is the leading trade association for UK retailing. Although the BRC food safety standard began in the UK, it is now recognized as a global standard. There are over 17,000 BRC certified sites worldwide, and a large network.
The BRC was the first standard to be recognized as meeting the GFSI benchmark. Benchmarking to GFSI ensures that the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety is accepted by many of the world’s biggest retail groups, e.g., Walmart. The BRC’s ability to react to changing food safety concerns, meet customer requirements, and yet provide a simple, easy-to-follow process for manufacturers, has resulted in the Standard becoming one of the most popular GFSI standards.
The Standard provides benefits not only for the retail industry, but also for food manufacturers, importers, caterers, ingredient suppliers and the food service industry. It is currently used by suppliers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Far East, North and South America and Australia.
Benefit of The BRC Global Standard for Food Certification aims to:
If a supplier gains certification against the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety, it assures the customer that they are dealing with a company that reaches high levels of competence in all critical areas. They will know that their supplier is monitoring and continually improving their product quality, safety and legality, and that they have taken every possible precaution to prevent problems should there ever be a challenge made against a product. The certification audit report will be one of the documents an enforcement authority would require from a retailer or brand owner to demonstrate that their supplier was competent to produce a safe and legal product.
It is important that you understand all of the steps required for achieving BRC certification prior to making a commitment for application. Thorough preparation and an accurate application are the keys to success in achieving BRC Certification.
BRC Training for Food Safety Certification Preparation
Customized training is designed to give you the confidence and certainty that your company is ready to pass the certification audit. Professional trainers teach the key fundamentals of the Standard and how to avoid common non-conformances. In addition, qualified auditors can conduct a pre-assessment audit, which is a useful mechanism to identify and correct non-conformances before the actual certification audit ever begins.
Self-Assessment: After you have read and understood the Standard, a great place to begin is with a preliminary self-assessment conducted by your own food safety team. The self-assessment uses the actual Standard, and is of great value preparing your company for the certification audit. There's no fee involved. Any areas of non-conformity can then be addressed by your team. But if you need external help, TNV can provide assistance with (1) a pre-assessment audit; (2) and Compliance Audit assessment before applying to the BRC approved Certification body for enrollment.
Pre-Assessment: Is not mandatory, but is recommended to determine your readiness for your official audit. Can assist in identifying gaps in the supplier’s system so the corrective action can occur before engaging the full certification audit. Can be conducted using internal resources, your consultant or auditor.
It is recognized that many sites need a little time to develop their food safety systems and culture to meet the full BRC certification requirements. This program allows a company to take as much time as they need to become compliant.
Factor Affects the Audit Duration to ensure compliance: TNV is not approved body to conduct the audit, but we do help the client by training and doing the pre-assessment and complaint audit, and to decide the audit time we consider new BRC guidelines, the three basic indicators used to determine audit duration are as following:
In addition, there is a list of “correction factors†that can increase or decrease audit length. Some of these are:
Please refer new Change proposed in the new standards of BRC Food Safety Standard, Issue 7 Requirements:
On January 7, 2015, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) made available the Global Standard for Food Safety, issue 7. This new Standard along with all other BRC Global Standards are available for free electronic download from the BRC Bookshop.
The BRC Academy and BRC Approved Training Providers (ATP’s) are currently conducting training to issue 7 requirements. All new and recertifying sites to the BRC Food Safety Standard shall be required to certify under the requirements of issue 7 beginning July 1, 2015. TNV don’t certify, but help the client by conducting compliance audit to meet the requirement. This help the client to ensure the readiness and preparedness for the certification.
The majority of Audit Protocol requirements remain the same for certifying sites with updates to scope exclusion, grading, unannounced audit options, voluntary modules, and the Enrolment Program.
1.    Scope exclusion: Increased limitations to scope exclusion apply to issue 7 and only allow for products to be excluded from scope where the excluded products are clearly differentiated from products within the scope of certification AND the excluded products are produced in a physically segregated area of the site. The BRC logo may not be used by client unless it is certified by the BRC certification body only; and must not use if sites where exclusions are permitted.
2.    Grading: Two new grades are introduced in issue 7 (AA and D) along with redistribution of grading criteria for certification. Sites achieving 5 or fewer minor non-conformances can achieve the top grade of AA or AA+ where the unannounced audit option is selected. Grading criteria was redistributed for A – D grades. Refer to Part III Audit Protocol of Food Safety Standard issue 7 for details on the non-conformance distribution for grading criteria.
3.    Unannounced Audit: Unannounced audits remain a voluntary option in issue 7, but the requirement for a qualifying audit to participate in the program was removed. All sites are now eligible to participate in unannounced audits for certification; however, sites not previously certified may need to wait up to 12 months from application submission before the on-site audit is scheduled.
4.    Voluntary Modules: Voluntary modules are new to the Food Safety Standard. This option provides sites a convenient way to achieve customer requirements, reduce audit redundancy, and enable certification via one audit report and certificate. The development of voluntary modules and associated criteria are separate from the Food Safety Standard and can be located by visiting the BRC Global Standards website. Global Markets Program (previously Enrolment Program) One area of focus in updating the requirements of issue 7 was to update the Standard to enable greater accessibility to smaller sites and facilities with a food safety and quality management system in development. This is largely achieved through a tiered audit process known as the Global Markets program where sites may achieve basic or intermediate recognition to requirements of the Food Safety Standard. Refer to Part III Audit Protocol of Food Safety Standard issue 7 for details on the requirements and benefits of the BRC Global Market Program.
5.    Standard Requirement Changes: Issue 7 requirements were updated with a focus on improved transparency in the supply chain, food fraud and substitution risk assessment, reduction in product recalls attributed to incorrect labelling, brand protection, and legal compliance. As a result, two new fundamental sections and five new sections were added to BRC’s Food Safety Standard. 3.5.1, Supplier and Raw Material Approval and Performance Monitoring
6.    New Fundamental Section:
a.    Section 3.5.1 was upgraded to a fundamental section. Â
b.    3.12, Customer Focus and Communication
c.     4.13, Management of Surplus Food and Products for Animal Feed
d.    Section 4.13 statement of intent requires effective processes to ensure the safety and legality of site by-products.
e.    5.2, Product Labelling Section 5.2 statement of intent requires product labelling to comply with legal requirements and contain information for safe handling, display, storage and preparation of food product within the supply chain or by the customer.
f.     5.4, Produce Authenticity, Claims and Chain of Custody, New Section, Under issue 7, companies shall be required to have a process for acquiring information on adulteration and substitution threats of raw materials within the supply chain, documented risk assessment of known threats for raw material groups used by the company, and an assurance testing process where risk is identified.
g.    Section requirements clarify differences between claims (e.g., identity preserved, assured status) and require sites to maintain the certification status for claims about methods of production (e.g., organic, Halal, Kosher). 6.2, Labelling and Pack Control, New Fundamental Section Section 6.2 statement of intent requires controls of product labelling activities to ensure products are correctly labelled and coded. Packaging requirements from issue 6 were brought forward into this new section with additional requirements for allocation of packaging materials to packing lines, control in the packaging area to ensure packaging is available for immediate use only, and procedures to ensure correct set-up and rejection of on-line vision equipment used to check product labels and printing.
h.    Additional Key Changes: New clauses in issue 7, which represent additional key changes include: 4.2.3 New clause The requirement for locked external storage tanks, silos and intake pipes with external openings.
i.      4.3.7 New clause: Requirements for a documented risk assessment and effective methods to prevent pathogen cross-contamination of finished product from raw materials, process and personnel flow, utilities, and air in ambient high-care areas.
j.      Ambient High-Care Area is defined as an area maintained to a high standard where practices relating to the production of ambient finished product minimize contamination by pathogenic microorganism.
k.    Refer to Appendix 2 of issue 7 for clarification and examples of products applicable to ambient high-care requirements
l.      4.7.5 New clause: The requirement for maintenance activities performed in high-risk and high-care areas to follow segregation requirements and where possible, utilize dedicated tools and equipment
m.  4.14.11 New clause: The requirement for employees to be knowledgeable of the signs of pest control activity and report evidence to the designated manager. 7.4.5 New clause The requirement for protective clothing changes at a defined minimum frequency based on risk and minimum daily requirement for high-care/ high-risk areas.
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