BRC

Global Standard For Food Safety

GLOBAL STANDARD FOR FOOD SAFETY is an international standard for food safety directed to the food manufacturers providing their own brand products to the network market. BRC standard was first developed and published in 1998. At the turn of the years BRC standard subordinated continuous updating due to the changes in legislation, practical experience as well as the based on current state of knowledge on health safety of food production. The aim of BRC is to determinate the requirements for safety and the quality of the plants producing food which is delivered to the network market. The Standard and the content of the Standard are designed to evaluate the supplier in his base by the competent auditor.

From the 1^st of January 2012 a new edition of BRC standard in a version of 6 becomes effective. This means that the companies interested in the BRC certificate will have to be audited in compliance with the requirements of the sixth version. The obtained certificate is valid for 12 months, after this term, the company which wants to show the BRC certificate must expose the next audit leading by auditors of an independent certification body.

The basic assumption in the BRC are :

• the involvement of management,
• food safety programme based on HACCP,
• the improvement of quality of management system.

BRC certificate is recognised all over the world. Additional advantages of the implementation and application requirements of BRC are : detailed content of standard which is a kind of guide in ensuring the safety of producing food, adaptation of current legislation, the possibility of presenting the company in an international public BRC catalogue, the possibility of using options of announced and unannounced audits.