4 Ways Our Systems Can Help With BRC Audits

What Is BRC?

If you’re a food producer in the UK, you’ll likely know of the British Retail Consortium and their work across the retail industry, including their Global Standards assessment that helps retailers audit their suppliers. If you’re not, then you should know that the BRC works to support the food production sector, helping suppliers and retailers alike have confidence in the products they sell. The BRC set the standard which many suppliers strive for. By passing BRC audits, a food producer can demonstrate to customers and retailers that their products are safe and produced to a recognised standard of quality.

What Is A BRC Audit?

An audit is the official assessment that is undertaken to determine a producer’s adherence to the BRC’s Global Standards. This is assessed against the BRC’s standards, the latest revision of which is Issue 9 that was published this year. Any type of audit consists of a comprehensive look at every element of the product or process. For food manufacturers, a BRC audit looks at a number of requirements, these include:

BRC audits can be a tall ask for a business to undertake, looking into and requiring evidence from a number of areas of your business. Having a Stevens System on-site can help make these audits easier for you, your colleagues and your business. Spend less time worrying about audits and keep your focus on the everyday running of your operations and production.

Documentation and Management of Processes

One thing the auditors will look for is documentation across your various processes in the form of a quality management system. The Stevens Management suite is designed with this in mind. It is at the heart of our traceability systems and comes packed with tools to manage your varying production processes, as well as reporting tools so you can document and gain insight on your processes as they happen.

With Stevens Management, you can ensure you have the necessary reports and documentation ready to show to your BRC auditor to demonstrate you are monitoring and managing your processes.

Supporting Continuous Improvement

The auditors will also be looking at whether those in senior management positions are committed to not just implementing processes surrounding food safety, but the continuous improvement of those processes moving forward. Implementing a traceability system in your business is a demonstration of intent to do just this, and also provides a platform for senior management to control and learn about production.

With previously mentioned reporting tools that are available within Stevens Management, you can gain valuable information that can inform the improvement of processes moving forward.

Allergen Control

In a BRC Audit, you’ll have to demonstrate the controls that are in place to maintain control in the products being produced. This includes managing allergens that might be present. Using the Production software module included in our traceability systems, you’ll have access to the very tools to help you do so.

As listed in our 5 Key Features of Production Dynamic blog post, you can assign allergens to particular commodities. Allergens can be set up in the management suite and can then be assigned to commodities when you create or edit them. You can tell the system to display a warning message on the terminal screen whenever a particular commodity is being weighed out. With this setting, you can ensure that operators are made aware of any allergens present so that can take the necessary measures or precautions during production.

Personnel Checks

Auditors will also be looking at your colleagues and operators too – if they’re properly trained, wearing any necessary gear like PPE, and if they follow the proper procedures when it comes to hygiene for example. Once again, our Stevens Management system accounts for this, with the ability to set any necessary personnel questions to ensure any operators using the terminals are adhering to the relevant requirements such as those mentioned above.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how using one of our systems can help you better prepare for BRC audits, then get in touch here to speak to a member of our team. You can also download our free brochures for both our Essentials and Dynamic Traceability Systems below.