Hello all,
I currently serve as the SQF practitioner for a SQF level 2 pet food manufacturer and one of our suppliers wishes to get a GFSI bench marked food safety certification and was considering BRC over SQF.
I am not very familiar with BRC and had several questions regarding BRC certification for pet food operations.
Does BRC have a separate code or module for the petfood industry or is the standard the same as that used in a human food facility certified to the BRC standard?
Apparently the latter, pet food is seemingly in either category 11 or 15 depending on the product "presentation". (see attached file).
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What is a typical time line like for obtaining BRC certification ? Preparation, Audit duration, ect?
I suggest you download a free copy of BRC7 Standard from brc website to study. This contains audit details (scoring schemes are rather different). The timeline usually depends on gap analysis, resources, etc
Any assistance/advice that could be offered would be greatly appreciated.
One obvious difference is that BRC offers some detailed Guidance material like SQF but it is not free.
Some of yr present SQF documentation will probably transfer but BRC and SQF, although both claim allegiance to Codex, have some HACCP differences of opinion. BRC also includes some topics which are not FS related, eg weight control.
There are some inter-comparisons of BRC/SQF Standards on this Forum.
Both standards IMO have their own individual quirkinesses.
Kind Regards,
DNA Seq
