Leading European food safety and assurance firm CMi has been awarded Approved Training Establishment (ATE) status for the British Retail Consortium (BRC). This extends the role of CMi on the international platform, and ensures it meets the growing demand for training in the BRC standards throughout the world.

CMi processing scheme manager Amanda McCarthy said: “The training courses CMi now offers will allow potential and existing clients to better understand the BRC standards for food and packaging. Demand for training in the BRC is currently high because of the new versions of the standards, which are due to come into effect from July 2008.”

CMi can now provide training in countries such as South Africa and France, where provision of such training has been in very short supply.

“This is fantastic news for us,” added McCarthy, who pointed out that all trainers are extremely hands-on individuals, very practical, and have a plethora of experience in the field. “We can now expand the range of services to clients on a global basis, which will really help our clients to fully understand the new standards which are fast approaching.”

The individuals at CMi who have achieved this qualification are located in the UK, South Africa, France, Italy and Spain.

“Before this we could only train our own people on our standards. Now we can train others to understand the new requirements which will affect not only food and packaging but storage and distribution also,” said McCarthy, who added that CMi will also be able to deliver HACCP courses to clients through this new network. “Our clients have to understand the new requirements, and we can now fortunately assist them in time by delivering the official BRC courses.”

Last year, the American based global testing and certification company NSF International acquired CMi. The combined resources and expertise of CMi and NSF mean that together they can offer greater spread and depth of assurance services worldwide, and provide on the ground auditing services in many more locations.

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