In 1998 the British Retail Consortium (BRC), responding to industry needs, developed and introduced the BRC Food Technical Standard to be used to evaluate manufacturers of retailers own brand food products.
In a short space of time, this Standard became invaluable to other organisations across the sector. It was and still is regarded as the benchmark for best practice in the food industry. This and its use outside the UK has seen it evolve into a Global Standard used not just to assess retailer suppliers, but as a framework upon which many companies have based their supplier assessment programmes and the manufacture of some branded products.

The majority of UK and Scandinavian retailers will only consider business with suppliers who have gained certification to the appropriate BRC Global Standard.
Following the success and widespread acceptance of the Global Standard – Food, the BRC published the first issue of the Packaging Standard in 2002 (now in its 2nd Edition), followed by Consumer Products Standard in August 2003. Meanwhile there is also the Storage and Distribution Standard and the Non-GM Standard. Each of these Standards is regularly reviewed and each standard is fully revised and updated at least every 3 years after extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders.

For the food standard as an example the requirements deemed as being fundamental are:

• HACCP System, Section 1
• Quality Management System, Section 2.1
• Internal Audit, Section 2.9
• Corrective Action, Section 2.12
• Traceability, Section 2.13
• Layout, Product Flow and Segregation, Section 3.2.1
• Housekeeping and Hygiene, Section 3.8
• Handling Requirements for Specific Materials, Section 4.2
• Control of Operations, Section 5.1
• Training, Section 6.1.

The evaluation protocol provides the specific requirements for those organisations involved with evaluation against the BRC Global Standard – Food.

For more information see www.brc.org.uk