5 replies to this topic

[Mark1810]

Hi everyone,

My name is Mark, I am very new to the Food Industry and have worked in Engineering for the past twenty years. So I definately have had no training in handling Food.

The company I have started with has only been open for 1 year, we are a basic company which handles and stores Fruit and Veg in Cold Storage. We are in the supply chain for a well known Supermarket, they conducted an audit recently and now require us to have a HACCP Certificate.

So my remit is to achieve this standard, however, just last week they moved the goal post and now require that all suppliers are to be approved against a standard accepted by The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). As we are currently working towards achieving HACCP, we now have to have one of the following;

BRC Global Standard Ver. 5
Dutch HACCP (Option B)
FSSC 22000 (Conditional Recognition)
International Food Standard Ver. 5
SQF 2000 Level 2

So over the next few months I'll be coming here to find out as much as I can. I would be grateful for any suggestions/support which anyone can offer.

My first question to start with is; Is the Dutch version of HACCP the same as the UK HACCP?

Many thanks for any reply.

Mark

[Charles.C]

Dear Mark,

Welcome to the forum !

You may hv to clarify yr question a little.

As far as I know, there is no such official entity as UK HACCP although I'm not in the UK so I'm quite willing to be proven wrong ? Most likely the UK is following related EC / HACCP / Directives although certain organisations like the meat industry have issued their own "normal" English manuals including HACCP procedures as particularly oriented to their business / processing requirements. Hv no idea about UK vegetable trade unfortunately.

If you mean HACCP as required by BRC standard, this would be the Codex version as detailed in one/two of the FAO/WHO documents. Of the several "official" versions existing, they are usually > 80% the same in terms of basic structure since I think most are primarily following the Codex format or the USA (NACMCF) original designs.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Mark1810]

Dear Mark,

Welcome to the forum !

You may hv to clarify yr question a little.

As far as I know, there is no such official entity as UK HACCP although I'm not in the UK so I'm quite willing to be proven wrong ? Most likely the UK is following related EC / HACCP / Directives although certain organisations like the meat industry have issued their own "normal" English manuals including HACCP procedures as particularly oriented to their business / processing requirements. Hv no idea about UK vegetable trade unfortunately.

If you mean HACCP as required by BRC standard, this would be the Codex version as detailed in one/two of the FAO/WHO documents. Of the several "official" versions existing, they are usually > 80% the same in terms of basic structure since I think most are primarily following the Codex format or the USA (NACMCF) original designs.

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Charles,

Many thanks for your reply, you are right of course, please excuse my lack of knowledge. It is the CODEX format we are implementing.

Regards

Mark

[Charles.C]

Dear Mark,

OK, thks for info.

I don't know if you've studied the Dutch HACCP yet or the Codex versions yet (free dwls are available).

I've never actually used the Dutch version but I can offer one comment from observation - you will probably find that the format is far more prescriptive. AFAIK, there is a much smaller userbase (I'm guessing) so available IT information probably tends to be rather scarce. BRC surely dominates the UK market for customer-driven reasons. I presume there is also a specific reason for yr Dutch interest.?

Not sure how many people here are using the Dutch system, it doesn't seem to come up very often. May be a sign of satisfaction of course.?

Rgds / Charles.C

[Mark1810]

Charles,

Many thanks for your info. I am yet to fully understand anything at the moment but sure I'll get there lol.

Anyway, I do not know the reason why they have opted for the Dutch version, we considered the BRC and found it to be to in depth for our small process.

Our process is simple; Goods In - Store - Goods Out...... Our main objective is Cold Storage, so we monitor Temp Regimes, Humidity, Ethylene etc... and basic handling.

Regards

Mark

[Charles.C]

Dear Mark,

Yes, i can understand the slight quandary involved in the sense that you are not doing line food processing although "basic" handling is a little vague perhaps ?

One obvious point is that, other than perhaps the 3rd option in yr original list (not sure what the "conditional" means, probably "in process"?), I think all the others are considered equivalent as per the GFSI standard which means they hv to conform to the (published) GFSI / FSMS requirements which are not exactly negligible in scope.It's possible that some standards may offer "better / easier" options to exclude certain items depending on the company's exact business like the antique ISO 9002 system. However, from memory, it is certainly a fact that these standards do hv distinct variations in aspects such as pass/fail methodologies, audit frequencies etc and possibly fundamental things, eg BRC's depth of inquiry is also side-related to the legal side of UK Food Regulations via a company's "due diligence" responsibilities.

I would suggest you hv a look at the official / detailed GFSI "minimum" requirements (approx. 2007-8 from memory) which are freely dwlable somewhere, maybe even on their site!. (the link is also given several times on this site with comments, search "GFSI" here [+ filter my name perhaps ] or Google, maybe even faster / more flexible)

Detailed, section-by-section, column format, cross-comparisons of three of yr listed standards, (maybe even 4) also exist here if you search a little, possibly inc. GFSI req. also.

I suppose you are aware that BRC do offer a more restricted Standard for "Storage and Distribution" although (I hv never seen the standard) this may well hv more limited HACCP content and is probably not within the GFSI umbrella (guessing again). Just a thought. ( http://www.tsoshop.c...38816&DI=571033

Rgds / Charles.C