BRC Standard

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BRC (Food Safety)

BRC Global Standard for Food Safety is developed by food industry experts from retailers, manufacturers, and food service organizations to ensure it is a rigorous and detailed, yet easy to understand program.

It is globally established and defined by many leading global specifiers. First published in 1998, it is now on its 8th issue.

It provides a framework to manage product safety, integrity, legality, quality, and the operational controls for these criteria, in the food and food ingredient manufacturing, processing, and packing industry.

The importance of management commitment
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) based food safety programs
Quality management systems
Auditing good manufacturing processes
Auditing areas which often have the highest rate of product recalls and withdrawals, such as labeling and packing
Developing systems to reduce exposure to food fraud
Ensuring consistency of the audit process
Providing a BRC Global Standard that is portable enough to allow Additional Modules to be added to reduce audit burden
Promoting greater resilience, transparency, and traceability in the supply chain.

Contact us at Global Compliance for more information on how we can help you become BRC Food Safety certified.

BRC (Packaging)

Packaging is a fundamental part of any brand. It ensures product integrity, security and drives innovation. Consumers are attracted to strong and recognizable products that need to be consistent in size, color, and shape. Packaging is an integral part of the manufacturing process.

The BRC Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Materials is the first Packaging Standard in the world to be recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GSFI) benchmarking committee. Over 3,500 suppliers in over 80 countries have chosen to be certificated to this scheme and is recommended or accepted by specifiers worldwide.

The BRC Packaging Standard can be used by any manufacturer producing packaging materials for all types of products – from food to consumer products – at all levels: primary, secondary and tertiary.

Issue 5 of the BRC Global Standard was published in July 2015 after consultation with industry experts and we’ve designed the Standard to help you adopt good manufacturing practices and support quality management systems. This will help you develop and manufacture safe, legal packaging materials that meet the quality levels expected by your customers and consumers.

The BRC Global Standard is divided into eight manufacturing technologies:

Glass manufacture and forming
Papermaking and conversion
Metal forming
Rigid plastics forming
Flexible plastics manufacture
Other manufacturing
Print processes
Chemical processes

Contact us at Global Compliance for more information on how we can help you become BRC Packaging certified.

BRC (Storage and Distribution)

Introduced in 2006, the BRC Global Standard for Storage and Distribution provides the essential certification link between the range of BRC Global Standards manufacturing Standards and the end user, such as the retailer or the food service company.

Developed by multi-stakeholder groups including industry representatives from certification bodies, food service organizations and retailers, the BRC Global Standard is designed to reflect best practice and facilitate a process of continuous improvement through a well-designed risk-based product safety management system.

The goal of the BRC Global Standard is to ensure that product integrity during the storage and distribution are maintained and that customer confidence is upheld through audit and certification. The third edition of the BRC Global Standard for Storage and Distribution was published in 2016.

The BRC Global Standard is divided into 8 sections:

Senior management commitment and continuous improvement
Hazard and risk analysis
Quality management system
Site and building standards
Vehicle operating standards
Facility management
Good operating practices
Personnel

Contact us at Global Compliance for more information on how we can help you become BRC Storage and Distribution certified.

BRC (Brokers and Agents)

Agents and Brokers (non-manufacturing traders) who buy, sell or facilitate the trade of products, provide a critical link in the movement and trade of products, and influence supplier product safety and quality standards, as well as being responsible for maintaining an effective chain of traceability.

The BRC Global Standard for Agents and Brokers has been developed to provide a framework for managing product safety, quality, and legality for these non-manufacturing businesses in the food and packaging industries.

The BRC Global Standard is aimed at:

Brokers: Companies that purchase or ‘take title to’ products for resale to manufacturers, other brokers, retailers or food service companies, but not directly to the consumer
Agents or non-manufacturing service providers: Companies that trade between a manufacturer or broker and their customers, but do not own or take title to the goods
Importers/Exporters: Companies that facilitate the movement of products across national boundaries, satisfying legal and customs requirements. Importers and exporters may also be agents and/or brokers

Contact us at Global Compliance for more information on how we can help you become BRC Broker and Agent certified.

BRC (Consumer Products)

The new issue of the Consumer Products Standards Issue 4 in 2016 has been fully revised to:

Recognise the diversity of products included within Consumer Products
Align the Standard with the actual buying expectations of specifiers whilst encouraging continuous improvement
Simplify the requirement and terminology to make it easier to understand
Widen the scope to include products for wholesale sale and components/raw materials
Ensure that requirements were risk based
Introduce an entry Foundation level and Higher level to encourage continuous improvement

To achieve these objectives we have divided Consumer Products into 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. This enables both flexibility to reflect customer’s needs depending on the product sector and product /brand risk and provides a clear pathway for continuous development.

The Standards have been developed by groups of industry experts to ensure they are rigorous and detailed but clearly focused on the key issues to produce safe, legal products in accordance with customer quality requirements. The Standards provide a framework to manage product safety, integrity, legality and quality, and the operational controls for these criteria.

Both Standards focus on:

The importance of management commitment
Product risk assessments to ensure the product’s design is safe and legal before production
Process risk assessment as a tool to ensure that potential issues in the production of the products have been understood, prioritized and effectively managed
The design and maintenance of the factory and production environment to ensure this is suitable to manufacture and protect products from contamination
An effective product testing and sampling process

BRC (Retail)

Introduced in 2016, the BRC Global Standard for Retail provides essential certification for organizations that retail food products, as well as hard lines. The BRC Global Standard covers the activity of retailing, as well as commissary, sourcing, and in store production

Retailers are the last step in the food supply chain prior to the consumer and play a critical role in managing the supply chain, as well as the delivery of goods and services to the consumer

This BRC Global Standard is, therefore, designed to promote best practice on product safety, quality and the operational criteria required to fulfill obligations with regard to legal compliance and consumer protection