Don't get caught out by BRC 6 point 7.2.3 Personal Hygiene

Hi all we had our BRC audit last week and I wanted to give you the heads up on point 7.2.3 the use of plaster s as we were given a minor non-conformance, we interpreted the "where appropriate in addition to the plaster a glove shall be worn" as an appropriate area in the factory according to our auditor 95% of all audited are interpreting this the same way. The BRC interpretation is all plasters on hands shall be covered with a glove. So folks don't get caught with this one. I cant wait for the guidance.



Regards
Dairymaid

Thank you, our audit is tomorrow and we could easily have been caught out by this. Why don't they say "gloves must be worn" why the "where appropriate" comment? Surely that leaves room for doubt in the auditor and auditee's mind and also makes it unclear what you need to do before the audit.

I hate wishy washy wording.

Hi All,

It should be unfair for the auditor to give a NC on this because some areas are not high risk.The wording 'where appropriate' is enough for me to contest a NC based on this.

Regards,
Kamwenji Njuma

I agree. "Subject to risk assessment" is another good phrase that basically tells you nothing until you discover your risk assessment should have come to a different conclusion i.e. the one the auditor requires...

Hi Dairymaid,

I've always interpreted the 'where appropriate' bit to mean depending on where the plaster is on the body not which part of the factory the person is in, so if the plaster is on a finger/hand then yes wearing a glove is appropriate (which ever area they are working in) for me mainly because those blue plasters are pretty rubbish (or maybe we are just buying cheap ones!).
But especially if the cut is somewhere else on the hand rather than the fingers it can be difficult for the plaster to stay stuck and at least wearing the glove means if the plaster does come unstuck its going to go in the glove and not the food (always assuming that when the glove is taken off its done away from the line etc).

However I totally agree that this is one of those instances where if they mean all plasters on hands shall be covered with a glove why can't they just say that!??

Hi all we had our BRC audit last week and I wanted to give you the heads up on point 7.2.3 the use of plaster s as we were given a minor non-conformance, we interpreted the "where appropriate in addition to the plaster a glove shall be worn" as an appropriate area in the factory according to our auditor 95% of all audited are interpreting this the same way. The BRC interpretation is all plasters on hands shall be covered with a glove. So folks don't get caught with this one. I cant wait for the guidance.



Regards
Dairymaid