New BRC Global Standard targets food fraud

Version 7 has been developed to address food safety, quality and operational criteria in food manufacturing plants. The third-party certification standard is used by over 22,000 supermarket suppliers in 123 countries.

Following the launch, scientific services company RSSL is running a training course for manufacturers and retailers on the standard, particularly on risk assessment, traceability and authenticity.

Cross contamination​

The new focus on supply chain integrity and cross contamination contained within version 7 is in response to the 2013 horsemeat contamination scandal. This rocked the industry and led to Professor Chris Elliott’s report into the incident published last year. The report made a number of recommendations to prevent such incidents occurring again.

Where risks have been identified, manufacturers are now expected to put in place processes, control measures and, where appropriate, sampling and analysis to ensure the integrity of products.

“Having been heavily involved in the horsemeat issue and advising the industry, [the RSSL] course has been specifically developed to give delegates both the confidence and ability to help meet the new BRC requirements,”​ said Barbara Hirst, RSSL consultant, food safety and quality.