BRC mends its ways

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is making changes in support of its Global Standards to address concerns from Tesco.

Retailers use the BRC Global Food Standard to ensure own-label suppliers meet the highest hygiene conditions in production. Other BRC Global Standards cover areas such as packaging, and storage and distribution.

Dr Geoff Spriegel, the BRC's director of global standards and technical services, said Tesco's concerns related to the consistency and integrity of BRC audits by third-party certification bodies, particularly those carried out in far flung parts of the world.

"Issues of competence of auditors is a cause for concern," said Spriegel. It is essential to ensure that the Global Food Standard covers all the major components to ensure food safety, he added. "But equally important is the integrity of the certification process. That depends on the competence of auditors and the capability of certification bodies."

All BRC food audits carried out from July 1 2008 will be conducted against version five of the standard. "In version five, integrity of certification is absolutely crucial," he said. It includes checks and measures to ensure consistency of the audit and "more detail in the clauses on non-conformities", he added. Version five also includes a clause dealing with site security, together with others dealing with allergen control.

BRC has produced a model audit report to guide auditors and those being assessed. It has also revamped its training and is developing a database of auditors.

BRC has employed more staff to ensure high quality audits and has appointed a compliance manager to work with certification bodies. Also in place now are key performance indicators for audits and a complaints procedure.