BRC
British Retail Consortium, BRC
The BRC Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 7 was published in January 2015, setting the latest benchmarks for best practice in food manufacture. Issue 7 will replace Issue 6 for all audits from the 1 July 2015.
Issue 7 has been developed to specify the food safety, quality and operational criteria required to be in place within a food manufacturing organisation to fulfil obligations with regard to legal compliance and protection of the consumer. The format and content of the Standard is designed to allow an assessment of a company’s premises, operational systems and procedures by a competent third party, the certification body, against the requirements of the Standard.
The latest issue of this BRC Global Standard focuses on:
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ensuring consistency of the audit process
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providing a Standard that is flexible enough to allow extra voluntary modules to reduce the audit burden
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encouraging systems to reduce exposure to fraud
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promoting greater transparency and traceability in the supply chain
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encouraging adoption of the Standard in small sites and facilities where processes are still in development
Issue 7 focuses the audit towards the implementation of good manufacturing practices within production. Increased emphasis has been placed on areas which usually have the highest rate of recalls and withdrawals, such as labelling and packing. Issue 7 continues to highlight management commitment and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)-based food safety programmes. Support for quality management systems is another key focus.