New focus on food fraud in BRC Issue 7
The 7th issue of BRC’s Global Standard for Food Safety has been published and becomes effective on 1st July 2015. There are many new considerations for those involved with food testing. Whilst it represents an evolution of many of the existing requirements, there are now 12 fundamental requirements which must be adhered to at all times and will require objective supporting evidence. Two new fundamentals are introduced: a focus on improving the management of suppliers of raw materials and packaging (3.5.1) and labelling and pack control (Section 6.2). Concern continues over the unabated rise in product recalls (e.g. 16% rise in Q4 2014, Stericycle) with food allergens representing a growing and major cause (e.g. FDA FRF reports note a more than 30% growth from 2009 to 2012). There is a common belief that these recalls can be significantly reduced by adoption of such measures as are required by Issue 7. Avoidance of food fraud, defence of reputation and product authenticity – and ways of ensuring them – are now hotly debated following the European horsemeat incident (2013). Using BRC Standard 7, the monitoring of suppliers helps avoid any potential risks from raw materials (including packaging) to the safety, authenticity, legality and quality of the final product. Additionally, there are more stringent requirements for the fundamental of traceability (3.9); certified sites must not only have an effective system themselves, but also have evidence that their suppliers do as well. Further, the Global Food Safety Initiative believe that food fraud mitigation should be an integral part of a company’s food safety management system, the company should perform a food fraud vulnerability assessment (5.4.2) and have a food fraud control plan to mitigate any identified vulnerabilities (see guideline PAS 96:2014 from the FSA). For example, where raw materials are identified as being at high risk of adulteration, appropriate assurance and/or testing processes shall be in place (5.4.3), especially if the available methods of detecting adulteration would be easy to implement e.g. the Raw Meat FlowThrough test takes only 12 minutes, requires minimal skill yet detects at the 1% Action Limit. The availability of such simple tests is already resulting in more testing being performed and should also mean greater openness and transparency in sharing results. This trend towards greater ‘joining up of the dots’ between suppliers and manufacturers could lead to new insights for all. Contact us to discuss your plans