• BRC Global Standard for Food Safety - What is it?

    The British Retail Consortium (BRC) Technical Standard for Companies Supplying Retailer Branded Food Products was developed in 1998 to provide a common standard for companies supplying retailer branded food products.  The BRC Technical Standard was developed by UK supermarket retailers to assist them in their fulfilment of legal obligations and protection of the consumer. In March 2003 the standard was renamed the BRC Global Standard - Food although it is still commonly referred to as 'BRC Accreditation'.

    What does the standard require?
     
    ·         The adoption and implementation of HACCP
    ·         A documented and effective quality management system
    ·         Control of factory environment standards, product, process and personnel.
     
    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 fundamental requirements, this now leads to a full evaluation against the standard (i.e. another audit)

    The BRC Global Standard Food Version 4 was published in January 2005 and came into force on 1 July 2005 - this contained a number of significant changes to reflect changes in legislation. Interpretation of requirements are more concise and the protocol more extended and detailed. Some of the changes were:

    • No foundation and higher levels, now only one status level.
    • No recommendations on good practice
    • The inclusion of a grading system based on the status and number of non-conformities
    • The introduction of 'fundamental' requirements which must be well established, monitored and maintained. These requirements include Haccp, internal audits, traceability, corrective action, layout, product flow & segregation, housekeeping & hygiene and training.
    • Changes to the wording in around 70 sections of the standard

    The next version, the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety (issue 5), was published in January 2008 and contains more changes which include:

    • Greater emphasis on senior management commitment to achieving an effective quality management system.
    • Greater clarity and definition of the HACCP section as the cornerstone of a food safety management system.
    • Expanded section on issues of major industry importance, such as Allergens and Site Security.
    • A more rigourous grading system linked to more frequent audits for poorly performing sites.
    • Revision of product categories that focus on technology of food production to clarify competence requirements of auditors.

    The standard is recognised by the majority of UK supermarket retailers, and is being increasingly used by food service companies to approve suppliers. The BRC standard was originally designed for manufacturers supplying own label products. It has also been used as a basis of supplier approval even when a company is supplying branded products only and in many instances it can be a pre-condition to supply certain companies. Food manufacturers are also using this standard as a basis of supplier approval.

    There are BRC certificated companies in many countries in the EU and as far away from the UK as Canada, Brazil and Thailand.

    One of its initial advantages was that it could reduce the number of food safety audits by each retailer and allow technologists to concentrate on other areas, such as product development, or specific quality issues.  In practice, supermarkets may also insist on their own audits, particularly for high risk suppliers, or they may apply other codes of best practice in addition to the BRC standard. There is also a separate technical standard for companies manufacturing and supplying food packaging materials for retailer branded products.

    There was another standard known as EFSIS, which did contain additional requirements but the latest version is now the same as the BRC standard - EFSIS now just refers to the certification company.

    There is also a BRC Technical Standard for Companies Manufacturing and Supplying Food Packaging Materials for Retailer Branded Food Products which was developed to provide a common standard for companies supplying packaging for food products.

    The German equivalent of the BRC have developed their own standard called the International Food Standard (IFS Standard). This has also been adopted by the French retailers and is expected to be adopted by other countries. Unfortunately there is limited mutual recognition of the 2 standards but this is starting to change. UK manufactures who wish to supply German retailers in the UK may also need to be certificated against the IFS standard and vice versa.

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