BRC Global Food Safety Standards Training (Issue 7)

In 1998 the British Retail Consortium (BRC) developed and introduced the BRC technical standard and protocol for companies supplying retailer branded products. BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. The current standard was published in August 2018. ... Read More

In 1998 the British Retail Consortium (BRC) developed and introduced the BRC technical standard and protocol for companies supplying retailer branded products.

BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. The current standard was published in August 2018.

BRC Food Safety Issue 8: Time Lines

January 2018 – Standards wording finalised
August 2018 – Standard published
February 2019 – Audit commences

Four other BRC Standards have since been added:

BRC Global Standard for Packaging & Packaging Materials, Issue 5.
BRC Global Standard for Storage and Distribution, Issue 3.
BRC Global Standard for Consumer Products, Issue 4.
BRC Global Standard for Agents & Brokers, Issue 2.

The redesign of BRC Global Food Safety Standard Issue 8 is quite radical in that there are now nine sections to the standard. The USA influence on the standard is becoming more pronounced particularly in Section two and the three PCs defined in FSMA.

The previous seven issues of the BRC Food Safety Standards have brought Food Business Operators a long way on their food safety journey by prescribing what to do in order to supply the British retailers. This cannot go on forever so less prescriptive concepts such as Culture, Risk-based Decision Making, Validation Protocols, Challenge Studies and Modelling are now being promoted.

A pro-active, positive culture within a company can make all the difference in the effectiveness of the Food Safety & Quality Plan. Culture can be challenging as it relies not just on measureables and specifics but on ethos and values. Good culture is also expressed through the ease of movement of information between different levels of the company. Within any culture there must be the requirement for openness, confidential reporting systems (whistle blowing) are another element of this.

In section two of the standard the wording has been amended to reflect the FSMAs regulation in the USA. Food Business Operators are not required to use the specific terminology of the standard, but the expectation is that the requirements of the standard will be fully met.

The use of environmental monitoring techniques within a Food Business is an under-valued tool for identifying potential product contamination risks. Issue 8 has been extensively expanded to encourage sites to develop rigorous monitoring programmes.

The need for companies to have rigorous product security and food defence systems to prevent malicious contamination has gained renewed understanding since the publication of issue 7. This has resulted in a major revision of section 4.2

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Course Introduction
Tutor / Delegate Introduction
Define Objectives
Overview of key objectives of BRC 8
- Food Safety Culture
- Implications of FSMA
- Enhanced focus on Environmental Monitoring
- Enhanced focus on Food Defence / Food Security
- Product Labelling
Clause by clause review of

1.      Senior Management Commitment
2.      Food Safety Plan - HACCP
3.      Food Safety & Quality Management System
4.      Site Standard
5.      Product Control
6.      Process Control
7.      Personnel
8.      High Risk, High Care & Ambient High-Care Production Risk Zones
9.      Requirements for traded products

The Audit Process
Certification Process
Non-conformance categorisation
Course Review / Evaluation

General management who wish to acquire a broad knowledge of the BRC Global Food Safety Standard requirements
Quality Assurance / Technical and Production Personnel who have specific responsibilities for BRC Certification as part of a risk management team
Engineering/Maintenance Personnel
HACCP Team / Risk Management Team members

Participants achieve the following learning outcomes from the programme;

Understand the logic behind the major changes to the standard
Understand what Food Safety Culture is and how to visualise
Know how to achieve Senior Management engagement with Best Practice Food Safety Culture
Understand how FSMA has impacted on BRC Food Safety Standard Issue 8
Understand why there is a much greater focus on environmental monitoring
Understand the expected mitigation strategy to manage identified threats
Know the major and minor wording changes in BRC Food Safety Standard Issue 8

Brian Robinson

Brian is a leading consultant and trainer in Food Safety, Quali...

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Ciaron White

Ciaron has a Degree in Food Science and Biochemistry, a Diploma...

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Denis Kiely

Denis has 25 years of experience working in various sectors of ...

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Edel Jones

Edel has a B.Sc. (Hons), M.Applied Science (Food Science), Cert...

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Joan Brien

A Food Safety Adviser with over 10 years’ experience working ...

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Tom Keane

A UCC graduate of Food & Meat Science, Tom is also a membe...

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In-House Courses
For In-House courses, the tutor will contact you in advance to discuss the course programme in more detail in order to tailor it specifically for your organisation.

Course Manual
Delegates will receive a very comprehensive course manual. All delegates should bring their own copy of the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety and if possible a copy of the BRC Food Safety Issue 8 ‘Guide to Key Changes’.

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