BRC defines a timely manner for completing a traceability test as within 4 hours. That's fine but......does this really mean that every traceability we do has to be achieved in that time frame?
I work in the meat industry so as you can imagine the number of traceability requests I have had this year has been huge. Each request is always accompanied with a "this is urgent, I have an auditor on site". And of course in many cases its a BRC auditor who is expecting the results of the trace within 4 hours.
Most of the time this is fine but on a couple of occasions we have come unstuck. If the request comes in after 12pm, the 4 hour period falls out of working hours. Our slaughterhouses close at 3pm UK time. And occasionally the requests are made on continental public holidays so no-one is working.
If we had an emergency, a trained member of staff would come in and do the trace. But surely its unrealistic to expect that for every trace we get asked for - I had 20 last week alone!
What are your experiences?
thanks