The BRCGS Food Safety Standard is currently on version 8 and is the most thorough of all the standards. As the original standard, this has been around since 1996. Originally designed to reduce audit repetitiveness through the supply chain from UK Retailers, the standard has evolved throughout the years into one of the most easily recognised GFSI Food Safety Standards in the world.
The Global Standard for Food Safety is developed by food industry experts from retailers, manufacturers and food service organisations to ensure it is rigorous and detailed, yet easy to understand. It provides a framework to manage product safety, integrity, legality and quality, and the operational controls for these criteria in the food and food ingredient manufacturing, processing and packing industry.
The Standard focuses on:
- encouraging development of product safety culture;
- expanding the requirements for environmental monitoring to reflect the increasing importance of this technique;
- encouraging sites to further develop systems for security and food defence;
- adding clarity to the requirements for high-risk, high-care and ambient high-care production risk zones;
- providing greater clarity for sites manufacturing pet food; and
- ensuring global applicability and bench-marking to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI).
The current version of the Standard is currently split into 9 modules.
BRCGS food Safety consultancy services
Five Star Food Safety offer BRCGS Food Safety Consultancy to ensure that your business achieves accreditation and maintains accreditation. Our services include:
- Expert interpretation of the current BRCGS Standard and legal requirements.
- Gap analysis of current systems vs. those required to meet the requirements of the standard.
- Providing accredited Food Safety Training to all staff levels of the business.
- Development and implementation of systems and procedures to meet the requirements of the standard and business requirements.
- Conduct an independent food safety systems review to meet the requirements of the standard.
- Management of projects, action plans and remedial actions to ensure deadlines are met.
- Working with the HACCP team to produce a verified process flow and robust risk assessment of relevant food safety hazards.
- Assistance with the actual audit. We can be present on the day and provide any support you may need during what can be a quite daunting time (especially the first one).
- Ongoing support in order to retain accreditation status or improve the certification assessment grade.
- Ongoing support to help your business make the cultural changes needed to obtain Unannounced Accreditation.