Section 4.2 of the BRC Interpretation Guidelines - Security
I have a question pertaining to a certain line of the BRC Interpretation Guideline:
The objective is to ensure that the safety of finished products is not jeopardized through malicious actions or unauthorized persons gaining access to site. Therefore, security systems shall be in place to limit and control access to the external areas of the site, buildings and product.
The Director of Quality and Food Safety and I (we're the main architects of working towards BRC) were going over our food defense policy and ran across the before mentioned passage and now we're kind of worried that we're going to have to start making plans to put fencing and gates up around our facility, which will be difficult since the entire area our plant is contained in is controlled by a condo association which prohibits fencing.
I guess my question is: are we going to have to put up fencing and gates to attain BRC certification?
We just had our first BRC audit. Site Security is discussed in 4.2 Security. We used the FDA website in the US to conduct a Food Defense Plan. It is a good place to start and see where your if you need to beef up your site security.
http://www.fda.gov/F...s/ucm349888.htm
I suppose it depends on what other measures you have in place. Do you have controlled access of the facility? Do visitors sign in and are you aware when people are on the property. We do have fencing and we are in a very rural area so we are less vunerable than a plant in the middle of a busy metropolitan area.
I have a question pertaining to a certain line of the BRC Interpretation Guideline:
The objective is to ensure that the safety of finished products is not jeopardized through malicious actions or unauthorized persons gaining access to site. Therefore, security systems shall be in place to limit and control access to the external areas of the site, buildings and product.
The Director of Quality and Food Safety and I (we're the main architects of working towards BRC) were going over our food defense policy and ran across the before mentioned passage and now we're kind of worried that we're going to have to start making plans to put fencing and gates up around our facility, which will be difficult since the entire area our plant is contained in is controlled by a condo association which prohibits fencing.
I guess my question is: are we going to have to put up fencing and gates to attain BRC certification?
Hi Hankesg,
BRC requires you to carry out a 'risk assessment' which will help you decide/demonstrate whether fencing is necessary.
4.2.1 You are required to undertake a 'documented assessment of the security arrangements and potential risks to the product'.
4.2.2 'Measures must be in place to ensure only authorised personnel have access to production and storage areas. A visitor reporting system shall be in place'.
The guideline does add that precautions may include:
Site security gates
CCTC cameras
Keypads or similar to restrict access
Controls on movement of visitors and contractors
Locks in external tanks and pipework
As the guideline states may rather than shall fencing is not compulsory but you will need to demonstrate that your other security measures are adequate in protecting product.
Regards,
Tony
Hi all,
The above two posts are really helpful. In my Company we use CCTV and visitor sign-in books, as well as some fencing. One helpful and simple/relatively cheap thing to do also is to segregate the production area from reception areas with a key-pad/combination lock that only authorised staff know the code to. This could then be changed when a member of staff leaves employment and ensures that only authorised staff can access the production area, unless they are a visitor that would have to be chaperoned by a member of staff. You can get these installed with push-release buttons on the inside, meaning they shouldn't be a problem if a fire occured/evacuation was necessary.
Hope this helps!
Katie
I think the word site security is a bit wide; wide in the sense that it does not only mean the fencing of the site because one may have a site that is fenced but the aspect of site security in the context of food safety is not addressed; take for instance the entry of personnel is not controlled, visitors vehicles are not checked, one cannot identify who is an employee and who is not, in the facility staff can access all areas (not restricted areas for instance where you store high risk products), then that facility will not have qualified / demonstrated its understanding of food safety.
What l would thus advise is carry out a risk assessment, see what security issues you are to address, and demonstrate that those issues are the one that affect food security in your facility
There is a very good document on here (probably under food defence) that I have plagiarized and I roll out to all my auditors, and they seem happy enough with it.
.
Caz x
I have worked in sites with fences and sites without and both have been compliant. As others have said, risk assess it. You could also put controls on doors where there could be access without someone seeing, have a policy which is trained out whereby staff challenge strangers (politely) and audit it! Maybe install CCTV. Do you have a receptionist? They are part of your security arrangements too.