4 replies to this topic

[JPO]

Currently we are certified to the FSSC 22000 standard.  We are a dry blended goods manufacturer (think powders in a pouch). 

 

The current ownership group is thinking about changing from FSSC 22000 to BRC (or to some other food safety management system). 

 

We are a small company that produces a low risk product.  I am also a one man shop in terms of QA and production management (it's just me).  I don't know that I have the time to rebuild a system from scratch.

 

A few questions:

 

- If I am changing systems, what would you change to and why?

- What system costs least overall in terms of auditors, registrations, etc?

- What system is the least cumbersome in terms of upkeep and most flexible for small manufacturers? 

 

FSSC 22000 is quite cumbersome, but at least it's in place now and we're already chugging along.  Not against changing to something new as long as it's streamlined and easier to use and ideally cheaper.

[George @ Safefood 360°]

I personally would go with BRC for a number of reasons but not least that it is quite clear on its requirements which takes out a lot of guess work. SQF can be cumbersome and there appears to be a lot of variation in audit outcomes and auditor quality/consistency. IFS is to my mind very open and in places ambiguous leaving a lot of room for auditor interpretation. IFS auditors tend to be better trained and more experienced (this can be a positive or negative depending on your perspective).

 

In relation to cost this really depends on various factors including size and complexity of the operation and the price variation between CB's.

 

In general I find the BRC really user friendly for both auditor and auditee. Just my humble opinion.  

[StevePNZ]

Hi.  I would resist the change unless you can justify the cost.  What does your customer want?  Our customers have indicated SQF is 'desirable'.

We required a crate wash system, more expensive audit (3 days) and much more time to manage and maintain the system.  They quickly responded by saying we didn't need to.

Management decided to do it anyway as it was required to get into supermarkets, etc.

 

Cheers - Steve

[Mendeljev]

To be honest, we consider to go from BRC/IFS to the iso based system as it is worldwide recognised

[Simon]

What have your competitors got and more importantly what do your customers want?

They are all GFSI approved and are all heading in the same direction and will be converge to be very similar in the future. 

 

Cheers,

Simon