Many role players in the food industry are all too familiar with the term BRC - The British Retail Consortium. The BRC is a trade association in the UK which represents most of the British retailers.

If you are a South African based enterprise and are exporting food products or wish to export food products to the UK, the chances are good that you will first need to become BRC certified before your products will be accepted by the major retailers in the UK.

One of these certification standards is the BRC Global Standard – Food. This standard includes the requirements of an integrated Food Safety and Quality Management System.

Development of the BRC Food Safety Standards began in 1996 with issue 1 being published in 1998. Since then the standard has been revised and now stands at issue 5. The latest standard came into effect on 1 January 2008 although auditing to the new standard will only commence in July 2008.

The latest revision has seen some significant changes and companies which are already certified, will need to gear their existing systems to ensure that all the requirements have been met. Some of the key changes include:

• A greater emphasis on senior management commitment

• Greater clarity and definition of the HACCP system

• Expanded sections on issues of major industry importance such as allergens and site security

• A more rigorous grading system

• Revision of product categories

• Optional unannounced audits

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