BRC Quick-Start Guide - 22000-tools.com

1 BRC Quick-Start Guide Brought to you by Vinca LLC. Visit us at: and Copyright 2014 Vinca, is BRC?BRC is an international Food Safety Management Systems standard, and is one of the GFSI recognized certification schemes. It contains requirements for food processors to follow to build an effective food safety management system . There are also editions of the standard for food packaging manufacturers, storage and distribution and now agent and requirements of the standard address the key elements that must be in place for your organization to ensure production of safe product. BRC Certification is recognized by GFSI, an important consideration when choosing a certification scheme because many major manufacturers and retailers require a GFSI recognized certification.

2 Other recognized certification schemes include FSSC 22000 and 16,000 facilities worldwide are certified to the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. To add your organization or facilities to this list you will need to build a management system that addresses all of the requirements of the standard, contract with a Certification Body to perform a certification audit, and pass the audit to become certified. Your organization will then need to have regular audits by the Certification Body to maintain BRC Certification AuditDuring the certification audit the Auditor will examine your BRC system to determine: If the documented system meets the requirements of the standard If the system has been implemented effectively If there is evidence of Management Commitment to the maintenance and improvement of the system If activities comply with regulatory, customer and BRC requirementsFindings:Nonconformities may be identified during the audit.

3 These are categorized as minor or major. A nonconformity is elevated to major if it presents a risk of unsafe product, or if it indicates that your organization completely failed to address a requirement. If there has been production of unsafe product it will be considered a critical nonconformities can be evaluated, root cause identified and corrected within 28 days, your organization can proceed to certification. If the items are more difficult to resolve, you will need to provide your certification body with a corrective action plan within 28 days. The actions will be reviewed at the next audit. However, if the audit score is less than a "B", there must also be another visit by the certification body to verify the actions.

4 A critical finding or a grade of lower than "C" means that your organization will not be certified. You must start with a new certification to BRCB rought to you by Vinca LLC. Visit us at: and Copyright 2014 Vinca, : Frequently Asked Questions Do we need to have a copy of the standard?Yes. Your auditor will write a major nonconformance if you do not have a copy available. Purchase your copy when you make the decision to implement BRC. You must understand the requirements. A copy of the guidance document "Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 6: Interpretation Guideline" is also recommended. You will find it very useful as you build your system . Both can be purchased from the BRC Global Standards site is a vertical audit?

5 A vertical audit is an audit of a specific production run. The auditor will choose a production run, something within the last few months, and will look at all of the records associated with that run. The auditor is able to see that all records are maintained, all controls and verifications taking place, all operators trained on the work they are performing, all times/temperature requirements met and any other information relating to the is a mass balance audit?A mass balance audit checks the amount of a raw material that is received agains the amount used in product or processes. Packed final product should not exceed the quantity of raw material is an audit score?The audit will be scored based not the number and category of nonconformances found.

6 The details are in the BRC Global Standard, Section is the Unannounced audit program?Once you are registered and have achieved a grade of "B" or better, your organization may choose the unannounced audit program. You can find the details of this program in the BRC Global Standard, Section to BRCB rought to you by Vinca LLC. Visit us at: and Copyright 2014 Vinca, for the HACCP Team Leader and Project ManagerThere are various options for training programs to meet the requirement of demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the BRC Standard. There are onsite classroom courses 2-3 days long as well as online courses. You will need to demonstrate to your auditor that you have been trained on and understand the code.

7 Train your Project Manager and/or HACCP Team Leader using our Complete Training package includes:A. Introduction to BRCC overs all the requirements of the Management system Elements and the Site Standards/Prerequisite (There is no B course for BRC; the introduction covers both the Management system Elements and the Prerequisite Programs)C. The Gap Analysis Checklists and Tutorial Includes checklists for the Management system Elements and Site Standards/Prerequisite BRC Templates and Implementation Tools Includes document templates and detailed implementation plansE. Internal Auditing Includes an online, interactive practice to BRCB rought to you by Vinca LLC. Visit us at: and Copyright 2014 Vinca, this section we outline our recommended steps to follow to prepare your organization for BRC Certification.

8 In the next few sections we will take a look at each step in more detail and provide guidance and resources for completing the steps. First take a look at this overview of the project Project Manager completes training on the Management system Elements and Site Standards/Prerequisite Programs. (course A) Project Manager works with the management team to prepare the project plan. This is detailed in the next section of the quick start Guide . identifies the BRC Steering Team . See the example BRC Steering Team first team meeting agenda and information in the BRC Steering Team Project Manager takes the Conducting the Gap Analysis training, downloads the checklists from the training and plans and leads the Gap Analysis on the Gap Analysis results, the BRC Steering Team identifies the Task Teams needed to address changes or implementation of processes for each of the BRC system Elements.

9 For Safety Completion and and Raw Material of Nonconforming of Incidents, Withdrawal and Design and , Assured Status, Identity Preserved Inspection and Laboratory of to BRC CertificationBrought to you by Vinca LLC. Visit us at: and Copyright 2014 Vinca, BRC Steering Team assigns team members to each task team, and a team leader for the each team. Some of the processes may be assigned to the steering team or HACCP team. See the example table for our recommendations. training requirements for those assigned to the task teams. Introduction to BRC is our recommended training for those team members. training requirements for the HACCP Team.

10 Introduction to BRC is our recommended training for the HACCP team BRC Steering team completes the Gantt chart or the detailed project plan provided in the Templates Package with the projected dates and timelines for the task team activities. task teams meet as scheduled to complete the changes to and implementation and documentation of the new processes. Use the document templates, forms and implementation plans from the BRC Template and Implementation Tools Package or Complete Training Package. BRC Steering team reviews and approves all the procedures and documentation developed by the task teams. BRC Steering team identifies individuals to be Internal Auditors, and prepares an initial internal audit schedule.