Food industry faces inspection changes

The world’s most widespread food safety standard is changing, Amanda McCarthy tells Chris Lyddon

Farmers are used to the assurance inspector turning up and going over everything, but it’s just the start of a chain of assurance and independent inspection that covers the food industry right up to the point at which the consumer buys the final product.

That inspection system, for most of the food chain, is about to change in a quite revolutionary way, explains Amanda McCarthy, food certification director at NSF-CMi, one of the biggest independent third party inspection bodies.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), the retailers’ trade association, is about to change its standard – and it is one that has come to be adopted in countries around the world.

“It’s massive,” says Ms McCarthy. “Of the food safety standards it’s number one in terms of numbers and the most widespread in terms of where it’s used throughout the world. It’s on every continent.”

The BRC standard was boosted by the 2007 decision of US supermarket Walmart to write to all its suppliers insisting on third-party certification.

“The BRC came in and was the first one to say ‘we can help you out’, so it took off in the US as well,” says Ms McCarthy.

“That’s made a huge difference. It’s a lot more consistent, rather than individual retailers expecting a certain approach.”

For example, rather than Sainsbury’s going to a manufacturer and saying it wanted things done a particular way and Tesco coming along afterwards and wanting something different, manufacturers could work to the same standard for all their customers.

“Now it’s a consistent approach. What the BRC food standard is asking for in terms of supply management is one approach.”

That standard, however, is about to change.

“There is a new version coming out in January, Issue Six,” Ms McCarthy explains.

“The BRC is making a conscious move away from documentation and more into what is actually happening on the site. It has actually reduced the number of requirements that are purely documentation and increased the number which are a good manufacturing practice.”
That means auditors will spend more time in the plant and less time shuffling paper.

“There have been some instances where auditors have gone in and done their paper trail exercise and then retailers have gone in behind them and found the hygiene and housekeeping wasn’t up to scratch,” points out Ms McCarthy.

“They want more time spent on that. They are actually looking at unannounced audits as well – where the auditor just turns up and says ‘I want to get into the factory within half an hour and see what’s going on’.

“You will find that manufacturers will have to do a lot more to make sure their own site is up to scratch, rather than just purely getting the documentation all together,” she adds.

“The documentation will still need to be there, but it is quite a significant change of emphasis by the BRC.”

• Amanda McCarthy is food certification director at NSF-CMi.