BRC food safety standard update: guidance available 19 January 2015

Official BRC Global Standard organisation partner Loma Systems is urging food processing companies to review their inspection equipment and procedures in line with BRC's latest standard.

The new Food Safety Issue 7 – which was published on 7 January 2015 comes into effect from 1 July 2015 – includes changes to inspection guidelines that will impact 22,000 BRC certificated food manufacturers and processors across 123 countries.

These processors need to start preparing for audits against issue 7, advises Tony Bryant, UK sales manager at Loma.

"The increasing risks associated with food quality and safety have been underlined by several very high profile scares in the last few years," warns Bryant.

"The BRC Global Standard is used as the benchmark for quality management systems across thousands of manufacturing sites around the world and helps food companies demonstrate their food safety credentials by having robust procedures in place," he adds.

BRC Global Standard for Food Safety is a single, internationally recognised food safety management system, and issue 7 includes several recommendations for further improvements to quality management programmes.

In terms of foreign body detection, it tightens the control of automated reject systems on inspection systems and there is further recognition for the use of X-ray inspection systems.

The standard also highlights that where metal detectors are incorporated on conveyors, test pieces should be passed as close as possible to the centre of the metal detector aperture, which is in line with Loma's best practice.

In addition, there is an increased focus on the safety of raw ingredients. Supply chains for products have become increasingly complex, often including raw materials from around the world and may include agents or brokers as intermediaries.

BRC believes this has led to a lack of transparency which becomes apparent too often when there is an issue requiring full traceability of a raw material.

"These updated regulations are part of the ongoing changes to ensure food is contaminant free," states Bryant.

"Reflecting the evolving food safety landscape, our comprehensive knowledge and understanding is key to any food factories operating HACCP and BRC regulations, as well as meeting retailers' Codes of Practice.

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Loma Systems

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