Dr Geoff Spriegel, the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) director of global standards and technical services, has revealed the changes made to the newest editions of Global Standards - Food safety and Packaging and packaging materials - which are due to publish January 2.

Both the Global Standard for Food Safety and the Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Material have been redrafted to include more detailed requirements to provide more guidance, a much greater emphasis on companies demonstrating senior management commitment and competence in the application of hazard analysis, and a review of the process for certification to produce greater integrity in the implementation of standard.

The BRC has also introduced optional unannounced audits for the food safety standard, which will give companies a star at the end of their grade. The standard will also offer a more detailed coverage of issues identified by the industry as of growing importance, such as management of allergens and site security.

“Redrafting the standards was a major task and a significant amount of work and research has gone into it,” said Spriegel. “We were delighted with the level of feedback we received from the industry and hope we have addressed all the issues raised.

“One of the important changes made to the food safety standard is the requirement for auditor standards. It is important that the supplier understands why the auditors do what they do.

“We have not made the revised standards effective until July, 2008, because we felt it was essential to allow suppliers to achieve the standards successfully.”

The upgrade of the Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Material has meant that the standard now covers non-food packaging, as well as food packaging and, at the request of customers of packaging producers, the standard will include more detailed coverage on the development and design process, customer review and site security.

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