7 replies to this topic

[Bhawani Gorti]

Dear Mr. Simon / Mr. Charles. 

Good evening

Last week we had BRC Food safety audit for my client in India. During audit we run chilli product and auditor covered only chilli product in BRC scope. My clients is interested to put spices and herbs instead of chilli. Is it is possible to cover the scope of BRC food safety certificate for spices and herbs or atleast spices instead of chilli single products?

thanks

[Tony-C]

Dear Mr. Simon / Mr. Charles. 

Good evening

Last week we had BRC Food safety audit for my client in India. During audit we run chilli product and auditor covered only chilli product in BRC scope. My clients is interested to put spices and herbs instead of chilli. Is it is possible to cover the scope of BRC food safety certificate for spices and herbs or atleast spices instead of chilli single products?

thanks

 

If you really are a consultant then you really should know the standard better:

 

6.1 Defining the audit scope
The scope of the audit - products produced and manufacturing process - shall be agreed between the company and the Certification Body in advance of the audit.
6.4 Extensions to scope
Once certification has been granted any significant additional produces...... that are required to be included in the scope of certification must be communicate to the Certification Body. The Certification Body shall assess the significance of the new products or processes and decide whether to conduct a site visit..... See Appendix 8
 

[Bhawani Gorti]

Dear Mr Tony

 

I know the extension of scope which you shared. I am looking for solution where without going into extension of scope, can we get scope which I stated. As spices is low risk product & process flow. Equipment, PRP & OPRPs are similar. In turmeric sun drying is not there. From cleaning & grading, goes to grinding & pulverizing. Rest is same. Can I use this logic to enable me to cover the scope of spices instead of single chilli product in scope.

Thanks

 

[Charles.C]

Dear Bhawani Gorti,

 

I deduce you are seeking some way for yr client to be able to state something like  “have XYZ certification for Spice Products” ?

 

I don’t know about spices due limited  experience ( Low Risk is maybe debatable?) but  I have observed  the principle above applied to other (Low Risk) food categories-processes. But the related inspection was carried out on >1  representative items which had similar hazard analyses, etc. Only one line would probably have been “contentious”.

And, as per Tony’s comments, some preliminary wheedling may well be necessary, on a case-by-case basis.

 

Rgds / Charles.C

[debaduttajayaprakash]

The scope of the audit is the scope of the certification , As agreed between certification body and company itself.  I believe the entire audit would have taken on the basis of Product category 15 . If the site only process chili and the auditor didn't found anything else on site then it will be for Processing chili only but if your client want to add all herbs and spices it should be agreed between your certification body. 

As per my experience from my BRC audits usually after the  audit the auditor ask what scope you want to add to your certification and it helps them to draw the conformance and non conformance to see weather you meet the requirement or not. 

It is not about extension it is about the scope of that particular site. 

[Charles.C]

 

As per my experience from my BRC audits usually after the  audit the auditor ask what scope you want to add to your certification and it helps them to draw the conformance and non conformance to see weather you meet the requirement or not. 

It is not about extension it is about the scope of that particular site. 

 

This seems a little strange to me because I think most auditors decide their "sampling" procedure based on the intended scope, ie at the beginning of the inspection.

 

Rgds/ Charles.C.

[Bhawani Gorti]

Dear Charles

Scope has to be declared at the time of application submission by client before audit. Auditor will plan according to scope declared by client for certification. But due to various reasons during audit - client may not able to show products running under audit observation. At that point of time only product which client runs in process will be covered in scope of certification. This is very much true for spices where spices has wide range of products in spices across the global. So it is not possible to show all spices are company is producing at a time. So under such condition scope of certification will be covered for product which client has shown to auditor during audit process. Rest of the product based on risk involved and process line (without major changes in process, equipments) other products can be covered via extention of scope for additional product through desk top inteview or submission of documents via email etc or least it may required half day site audit visit. 

thanks

[Herman_Louw]

I disagree that spices are "low risk"

Depending on the way how it is prepared and the quality of the raw materials (Usually from plants) is a minefield of gaps where inpurities and harmfull elements can slip in.

 

Only way to change from chilli to spices is through a proper extension of scope