The British Retail Consortium has announced it will publish the sixth edition of its Global Standard for Food Safety next month. Audits against the new standard will begin in January next year.

Major features of the new edition are an increased emphasis on good manufacturing practices and an enhanced unannounced audit scheme.

There will also be a reduced need for multiple customer audits, more detailed prescriptive requirements around important issues in order to improve consistency, a new enrolment process to provide a framework for food-safety improvement and new auditor training.