The BRC Global Standards for Food Safety

In 1998 the British Retail Consortium (BRC), responding to industry needs, developed and introduced the BRC Food Technical Standard to be used to evaluate manufacturers of retailers own brand food products. It is designed to be used as a pillar to help retailers and brand owners with their 'due diligence' defense, should they be subject to a prosecution by the enforcement authorities. Under EU food Law, retailers and brand owners have a legal responsibility for their brands.

The Global Standard for brc food safety was first developed in 1998 by the food service industry to enable their suppliers to be audited by third party Certification Bodies against a single consistent standard, reducing duplication of effort and enabling the food service industry to focus activities on areas of competitive advantage. Built on the principles of clear risk based requirements, informative report format and auditor competence, the
Standard has continued to develop and evolve with input from a wider base of international stakeholders including retailers, caterers, food manufacturers and Certification Bodies.

The Standard is closely managed by the BRC who license the use of the Standard to Certification Bodies who must be both accredited by their national Accreditation Body and abide by strict BRC requirements for auditor competency, reporting and performance.
In a short space of time, this Standard became invaluable to other organizations across the sector. It was and still is regarded as the benchmark for best practice in the food industry. This and its use outside the UK has seen it evolve into a Global Standard used not just to assess retailer suppliers, but as a framework upon which many companies have based their supplier assessment programmer and manufacture of some branded products.

The majority of UK, and many European and Global retailers, and brand owners will only consider business with suppliers who have gained certification to the appropriate BRC Global Standard.

Following the success and widespread acceptance of the Global Standard - Food, the BRC published the first issue of the Packaging Standard in 2002, followed by Consumer Products Standard in August 2003, and finally by the BRC Global Standard - Storage and Distribution in August 2006 . Each of these Standards is regularly reviewed and each standard is fully revised and updated at least every 3 years after extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders.

New editions of the Food and Packaging Standard have been published, respectively titled Global Standard for Food Safety and Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Materials. Both the new BRC standards are differentiated by a number of innovations which have been developed in the course of extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. These include:

    o Clearer and more detailed requirements.

    o Greater focus on analysis of potential hazards.

    o New specially-designed training courses.

    o Increased emphasis on senior management demonstrating their commitment to the aim of achieving a satisfactory quality management system.

    o Optional unannounced audits have been introduced for companies gaining brc certification grade A or B

    o More guidance on implementing HACCP based on Codex Alimentarius principles

    o Greater emphasis on senior management demonstrating their commitment to the aim of achieving product quality and safety and to ensuring corrective action for non-conformities is undertaken

    o Expanded sections on issues of major importance, such as allergens and identity preserved materials, laboratory management, and physical and chemical contamination control

    o A more rigorous grading system for grades B, C and D has been introduced with a re-visit by the certification body required within 28 days to verify corrective actions for grade C as well as audit frequency reduced to 6 months

    o Revision of product categories that focus on product technologies that are now cross referenced with fields of audit pertinent to auditor requirements

    o A new section has been introduced on site security requiring controlled access and training of staff, secure storage of materials and registration and approval of premises.

You can read more about Reason to choose BRC certification.

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Overview of BRC Standard

Space-age technology designed to keep food safe in outer space may soon become standard here on Earth. The Food and Drug Administration has adopted a food safety program developed nearly 30 years ago for astronauts and is applying it to seafood and juice. The agency intends to eventually use it for much of the U.S. food supply. The program for the astronauts focuses on preventing hazards that could cause food-borne illnesses by applying science-based controls, from raw material to finished products. FDA's new system will do the same.

Traditionally, industry and regulators have depended on spot-checks of manufacturing conditions and random sampling of final products to ensure safe food. This approach, however, tends to be reactive, rather than preventive, and can be less efficient than the new system.  The system is known as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, or HACCP (pronounced hassip). Many of its principles already are in place in the FDA-regulated low-acid canned food industry. FDA also established HACCP for the seafood industry in a final rule December 18, 1995 and for the juice industry in a final rule released January 19, 2001. The final rule for the juice industry will take effect on January 22, 2002 for large and medium businesses, January 21, 2003 for small businesses, and January 20, 2004 for very small businesses.

In 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has established HACCP for meat and poultry processing plants, as well. Most of these establishments were required to start using HACCP by January 1999. Very small plants had until Jan. 25, 2000. (USDA regulates meat and poultry; FDA all other foods.)

HACCP has been endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (an international BRC food standard-setting organization), and the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. A number of U.S. food companies already use the system in their manufacturing processes, and it is in use in other countries, including Canada. British Retail Consortium



BRC Global Standards

As the "Voice of British Retailing", the British Retail Consortium (BRC) expresses the views of its members and keeps the press, parliamentarians, consumers and many other opinion formers informed about issues in the retail sector. We take a broad view of what issues are affecting retailers, inclusive of retail crime policy; environment, property and transport; regulatory and consumer affairs.

The BRC publish globally recognised Standards for best practice in product safety for Food, Packaging, Consumer Products, Storage & Distribution and Non-Genetically Modified Food. These Standards are the market leaders and provide a framework upon which many retailers, global brand owners and manufacturers use for their supplier assessment programme and due diligence defense support.
BRC Standards ensure best practice standards are developed, implemented and maintained.

 
Benefits of the BRC Global Standards

    o Comprehensive and focused on safety, legality and quality
    o Clear and detailed requirements based on HACCP principles supported by documented systems
    o Standardised reporting format providing information on how sites meet the requirements of the Standards 
    o Closure of all non-conformities identified at an audit with evidence included in the report before Certificates can be issued
   o Complementary with existing quality management systems e.g. ISO and HACCP where these meet the requirements of the Standard
    o Focuses on identifying and preventing hazards from contaminating food
    o Is based on sound science
    o Permits more efficient and effective government oversight, primarily because the record keeping allows investigators to see how well a firm is complying with BRC for food safety laws over a period rather than how well it is doing on any given day
    o Places responsibility for ensuring food safety appropriately on the food manufacturer or distributor
    o  Helps food companies compete more effectively in the world market
    o Reduces barriers to international trade.

Objectives of BRC

    - Equip individuals who have a general understanding of effective quality system and who have a background in quality or safety systems
    - Ensure a broad understanding of Hazard Analysis and its exact Relation with industrial legal and safety concerns.
    - Provide a framework  for effective control of factory environment Standards,  product, process and personnel

What does the standard require?
The standard contains a number of 'fundamental, requirements which must be well established, continuously maintained and monitored by the company. The requirements deemed as being fundamental are Haccp, the quality management system, internal audits, corrective actions, traceability, layout / product flow / segregation, housekeeping & hygiene, handling requirements for specific materials, control of operations and training.
Where a critical or major non conformance is raised against one of these requirements, this now leads to a full evaluation against the standard (i.e. another audit)


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