BRC Food Safety Issue 8—Key Changes

BRC Global Standards has published the eighth issue of its internationally recognised Global Standard Food Safety. The Standard has been updated to reflect the latest thinking in food safety and provides a framework for food manufactures to assist them in the production of safe food. The development of Issue 8 followed a wide consultation to understand international stakeholders’ requirements and a review of emerging issues in the food industry.

The British retail consortium (Lead trade association for the retail industry in the UK) has released BRC issue 8 of revised BRC food standard in August 2018 for food organizations to establish hygiene practices and food safety. By implementing the BRC food standard, companies can get confidence, credibility, consistency, competence and continual improvement in a cost-effective manner.

There is no quick attach for changing BRC Issue 8 Documents culture within an organisation, as the BRC acknowledges, and as such, businesses are encouraged not to control their plan to 12 months when a more realistic timescale might be three to five years. Furthermore, organisations are more likely to succeed in changing food safety culture where they prioritise two or three relevant core issues to increase their food safety culture, rather than taking a generalised approach with limited impact.

What BRC Focused on for Food Safety Issue 8?

Despite being an evolution from previous versions of the standard, the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 8 introduces quite a lot of significant changes compared to its predecessor Issue 7. Issue 8 now puts even greater emphasis on management commitment, requiring the site’s senior management to demonstrate that they are fully committed to the implementation of the standard as well as to processes which facilitate the continual improvement of food safety and quality management. Furthermore, the BRC’s focus of attention has been on:

• 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

Key Changes in BRC Food Safety Issue 8

• An emphasis on improving company-wide food safety culture
• Greater requirements for environmental monitoring to reflect its increasing importance
• Encouragement for sites to further develop systems for security and food defense, including cybersecurity
• Additional clarity on the requirements for high-risk, high-care and ambient high-care production risk zones
• Clearer standards for sites manufacturing pet food
• A requirement for companies to adopt a whistle-blower reporting system

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