BRC : British retail Consortium
BRC standrad suppports you deliver confidence in your supply-chain. QMCS India BRC Certification consultancy in India.
What is BRC Certification?
BRC Certification is an globally Food Safety Management Systems standard, and this is one of the Global Food Safety Initiative recognized certification schemes. It contains need for food processors to follow to build best-effective-food safety-management-system. There are also editions of the standard for food-packaging-manufacturers, storage and distribution and now agent , trader and broker.
The need of the standard address the key elements that must be in place for your organization to ensure production of safe product. BRC Certification is recognized by Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a compulsory consideration when selecting a certification-scheme because many major manufacturers and trader need a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognized certification. Other recognized certification schemes include FSSC 22000 and SQF.
Over 16,000 facilities internationally are certified to the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. To add your organization/company or facilities to this list you will require to build a management system that addresses all of the requirements of the standard, contract with a ISO Certification Body to perform a certification audit & pass the audit to become certified. Your organization will then require to have regular audits by the ISO Certification Body to maintain system and registration.
What the BRC Certification covers
The Global Standard for Food Safety sets out requirements for how processed foods and other products (for example, branded foods; retailer-brand foods; or ingredients and packaging material used by food service organizations, caterers or manufacturers) should be made or pre-pared. Only products/item that are manufactured, prepared or stored at the site that’s being audited as part of the certification will apply.
The standard is divided into 7- sections:
1 – Senior management commitment and regular growth
2 – The Food Safety Plan – HACCP
3 – Food safety and quality management system
4 – Site standards
5 – Product control
6 – Process control
7 – Personnel
History of BRC
The British Retail Consortium was formed in January 1992 with the merger of the British Retailers’ Association and the Retail Consortium. In 1998 it produced the first edition of the BRC Food Technical Standard and Protocol for food suppliers. This has been widely adopted not just throughout the UK but around the world.
What are the BRC Benefit?
The Benefits of BRC Certification include the Following:
- Incorporates food safety management-systems and internationally accepted best practice to ensure the safety and quality of products
- secure your brand & your customers
- Allows to do business with those retailers, manufacturers, trader, ingredients-companies and food-service organisations who specify certification as part of their approval-process
- Support minimize the number of product-recalls, customer complaints &l rejected products
- Audits are carried out by trained and experienced certification bodies working to BRC Global Standards
The BRC international ISO Standard for Food Safety was the 1at -standard to meet the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standard, which means it’s accepted by many of the world’s biggest retailers, such as Tesco and Walmart etc. getting the certification assure your customers have confidence in your products.
Who requires BRC Certification for Food Safety?
BRC Food Safety Certification is beneficial for:
- The Finished Food Manufacturers can be branded & unbranded item/products.
- Primary product packers (e.g., fruit & vegetables).
- The raw material, as well as the ingredient suppliers.
List of BRC Standards
- BRC Global Standard for Food Safety Issue
First published in 1998, the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety was the first GFSI benchmarked standard and is on of the leading food safety certification standard.
- BRC Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Materials Issue 5
The BRC Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Materials was the first Packaging Standard in the world to be recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GSFI) benchmarking committee.
- BRC Global Standard for Storage and Distribution Issue 3
First published in 2006, the BRC Global Standard for Storage and Distribution is also a GFSI benchmarked standard. The latest edition Issue 3 was published in August 2016.
- BRC Global Standard for Agents and Brokers
The BRC Global Standard for Agents and Brokers provides a framework for managing product safety, quality and legality for agent and broker businesses in the food and packaging industries.
- Consumer products : Consumer Products Standards Issue 4 were published in 2016 and revised to recognise the diversity of products included within Consumer Products by producing two separate Standards
- Global Standard for Consumer Products – General Merchandise.
- Global Standard for Consumer Products – Personal Care and Household.
Each of the Standards can be certificated at either Foundation Level or at Higher level. - Retail
The BRC Global Standard for Retail was published in 2016 and provides a certification standard for organisations that retail food product
What is BRC Participate?
BRC Participate is a convenient and easy way to access all the content that is produced by the BRC Global Standards. BRC Participate is a well managed, subscription-based, online service that subscribers can access to view content, download PDFs of the BRC and access Interpretation Guidelines and supporting publications online, selecting your language of choice where translations are available.