BRC Global Standards Issue 6 Guidance – Part 8 – Process Control
Section 6 – Process Control
Control of operations (6.1) has been reworded to ensure that the production process is managed through recipes and process specifications to control not only product safety but also consistent quality of the products produced (6.1.1). New clauses have been added to ensure that the production lines are checked before start up and at product changes (6.1.6) and that the correct packaging is used, and packaging changes and coding are carefully controlled (6.1.7) to prevent errors. This is at least partly due to the fact that an increasing number of product withdrawals and recalls are down to the wrong packaging and / or label being used. This could mean that key food safety information including ingredient declarations, suitability of the food for certain consumers (e.g. vegetarians) and allergens that may be within the product is wrong! Clearly the implications of this could be serious. BRC Global Standards certification body auditors will want to see the line during product changeover. It is good practice to implement now a robust system to remove all old labels and packaging once a product run has finished and to ensure good hygienic practice including line clean-down.
There have been no significant changes to requirements for Quantity control (6.2) or Calibration (6.3)
Richard Mallett
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