New to BRC - BRC Certification, Where should I start?

I am new to BRC and wonder if there is a certain place to start. What worked best for ya''ll when you decided to get BRC certified?

I am new to BRC and wonder if there is a certain place to start. What worked best for ya''ll when you decided to get BRC certified?

The first thing would be to get a copy of the Standard and read through it.
Make notes where your existing programs, policies, procedures, etc may satisfy the requirements.
Review your existing documentation and revise as necessary so that it does in fact meet the requirements.
Then the fun part starts. Creating new programs, etc to satisfy the remaining requirements.

When the implementation guide comes out (rumored to be in April) get that as well. It should steer you in the right direction when creating programs, etc.

Marshall

Dear Sweetthang,

It might be useful if you added a little info. regarding yr technical background.

BRC is intrinsically a food safety management project. Are you familiar with the theory / implementation of the core topic of HACCP ?

Rgds / Charles.C

This is how I approached BRC version 6. I got a copy of the standard and copied every clause into a spreadsheet. I then did a quick read through vs. what I knew about our quality management system and worked out where the major gaps were, assigned urgency and responsibility and got that in motion.

My next step was to put together some internal audit sheets for each section of the standard, put together an internal audit plan and get that in motion.

Then basically I worked my way through the audits and the corrective actions and encouraged others to do the same. It took approx 6-7 months to get my management system up to version 6 but then it had previously passed version 5.

Don't be disheartened though, sometimes if you are starting from scratch it's easier. The previous technical manager set up the quality manual in a really strange way here meaning updates are awkward. If you are starting from scratch you will need to have documents of these types:

Manuals
Policies
Procedures
Records
Training
SOPs

And possibly a few more. What I would do if starting from scratch is do a quality manual document which covers the basics only and every time you need to have a procedure or a policy, reference it in the quality manual and hold the document outside of the quality manual as a numbered procedure, policy etc. This makes it easier to update them when the standard updates (which it does every 3 years). Number the sections in your quality manual as the BRC standard is numbered and you'll make your life easier.

Then go through the standard. It basically tells you exactly what to do, there are some areas open to interpretation but it's mostly there. Wherever you see the word "policy" you will need to write a policy. Wherever you see the word "procedure", you will need to write a procedure. Wherever you see the words "risk assessment" or "based on risk", the document must feature some assessment of risk in the basis of your decision making. Basically assume every requirement must be written in a document somewhere.

And then obviously you need to make sure your manual is translated into SOPs and everything is trained out to the shop floor. And that's it. Honestly!

I agree with the steps mentioned above. You can also go to this link (http://www.brcglobal...037 8.11.11.pdf ) and download BRC self assesment tool. This is exactly what is mentioned in BRC standards book.

I am new to BRC and wonder if there is a certain place to start. What worked best for ya''ll when you decided to get BRC certified?

Simple. Get the copyof the standard. Put the details clause to clause in an excel work sheet. Do a GAP audit. Tick what you have in place and cross what you dont. Then using the same wording, develop a food safety manual; e.g clause 3.2 document managment; Your compnay name shall develop and ensure all documents in circulation are controlled, legible, be of correct version and readily available at point of application.

Simple. Get the copyof the standard. Put the details clause to clause in an excel work sheet. Do a GAP audit. Tick what you have in place and cross what you dont. Then using the same wording, develop a food safety manual; e.g clause 3.2 document managment; Your compnay name shall develop and ensure all documents in circulation are controlled, legible, be of correct version and readily available at point of application.

Be sure to study and use the glossary in the standard, this is essential to reading the clauses and understanding them.
Then when you have finished going through your GAP audit, made notes, come here and ask questions, there are plenty of experienced people here.

Thank you all for the comments, they are very helpful. This will be my first Audit as I am new to this business. I work for a poultry company and we are getting ready to be certified for the BRC this year.

Thank you all, your information has been very helpful. I work for a poultry processing company and have only been here since October. So I am definatley new to the business. I just got through with my first Audit (not BRC) yesterday and done very well. We received a 97.7%. So I am looking forward to learning about and acheiving BRC Certification. Any help or advice is very much appreciated. Thanks you so much!

To prepare for BRC, you need to do a GAP analysis. Go to this link http://www.brcglobal...037 8.11.11.pdf. This is a self assessment tool, that you can use for your GAP analysis.

Thank you all, your information has been very helpful. I work for a poultry processing company and have only been here since October. So I am definatley new to the business. I just got through with my first Audit (not BRC) yesterday and done very well. We received a 97.7%. So I am looking forward to learning about and acheiving BRC Certification. Any help or advice is very much appreciated. Thanks you so much!

Hi, I am new to BRC audits. Any advice on this would be very helpful. This year we are trying to get out site BRC certified. I am new to my job, just a month old. Would be very appreciable if I could get pointers on how to go about it.

Have you taken some training?  HACCP, BRC implementation etc

Hi Scampi, I have done bit of training in HACCP. But no training on BRC at all.