Too small for BRC?

I am a new to the forum. I work for a really small start-up  company that makes  frozen vegetarian meat substitutes. A potential consumer will only work with us if we are GFSI certified. We determined that BRC seems the best suited for us, and it's my job to work on obtaining it. As I am doing more research on BRC, I'm beginning to feel we are too small for BRC or GFSI in general. In the production side there's just one other person and myself. When we are busy we might hire 1 or 2 temporary employees. It seems many of the clauses are intended for large companies, and don't seem to work or make sense for such a small company. Is it possible for small companies to get BRC?

Thanks for the advice,

Ben

Is your company planning to grow or are you happy with how things are?

BRC will provide a great Food Safety framework to expand the operation upon. And, if you do it now you'll be able to create a culture of food safety saving yourself some stress in the long run.

That being said, implementing BRC is a large undertaking; one that can take up a lot of time which it sounds like you may not be able to commit to without spending some money on someone taking your place in production.

BRC could also open up a whole new customer base for you as well.

There's a lot to consider, but I feel like BRC is one of the easier to interpret GFSI standards.

Hankesq,

Thanks for your response. The company certainly wants to grow. I realize how big of an undertaking BRC is, unfortunately management/ownership does not.  I just want to make sure it's doable. I have a nightmare of spending months on BRC and then the auditor shows up and laughs how small we are and does not take us seriously.  

Even if you decide to wait, it is still possible to be working towards it, so that when you are ready to go for certification you won't have much work to do.  Personally I find it admirable that though your small your aware of it and willing to do this.  Any auditor who does not take you seriously should  be barred from the profession. 

The standard has been written as a one size fits all for large and small companies. You can state that clauses are not applicable, f ex. one company I work for don't have outsourced processing, this section does not need to be addressed.

In many ways starting from a small base as you will be is an advantage in that you can develop the culture within your company to include high standards of food safety. This is so much better than having to impose an alien ( I use the word advisedly) culture on an organisation which has been doing it's own thing for years. 

The fundamental clauses are mainly food safety pre requisites and you should be giving them attention regardless of size.

BRC for all it's flaws is a good basic standard for anyone starting on the road to certification.

Once you start addressing the sections it will make more sense.

Chop it up into manageable chunks so you don't overwhelm yourself.

First thing to do is a good gap analysis.

Oh ... start your prep now but don't apply until version 7 is issued. I had a company gain certification in the last year of V5 and we had to revise the whole Quality manual for V6!!

This forum is an excellent place for bouncing ideas off people and finding procedures and templates.

I'd say go for it , but ask for help from all your colleagues including senior management from the outset. This is a BIG undertaking but not impossible with the proper support.

I ran across a smaller company that is starting out small with NSF International's "SUPPLIER ASSURANCE Audit". It is not as cumbersome as BRC but leads a company in the GFSI benchmark direction. 

May retailers understand that getting certified to a GFSI benchmark is no small task and may want to at lease see that (just as Snookie stated) you are "working towards" a GFSI benchmarked standard (as most of the major FSMS ideas/concepts are addressed in this type of standard).

(standard attached)

Convincing management/ownership of how big of an undertaking BRC and to get you the resources you need is another subject matter entirely....

Note: I have never worked personally with this NSF standard and only recently ran across it, there may be others that are comparable that could do the same thing (much like SQF level 1 is meant to help clients get up to the GFSI accepted levels 2 and 3). If anybody else has any suggestions on this level, I would be curious in others feedback on this.

Dear TFMBen,

It'sa tricky question assuming there is no direct related text in BRC standard (?).

I can recall reading a published ISO 9001 audit for a "company" growing flowers. Total staff was around 6 people. Certification was obtained although the auditor commented that some adjustments to their usual forms were necessary. :smile:

It is  a common comment that GFSI standards are more amenable to substantial sized operations. The GFSI  "menu" more or less implies such IMO. But, as you note, many top Managements will be incapable of realizing this (or simply choose to be so).

I would suggest to pose yr query to yr (any) potential auditor thereby passing the buck slightly.

For different reasons, i followed such a step and it was very informative/helpful. IMEX, feedback will be honestly given (its their reputation after all) and free, ie nothing to lose. (In addition the auditor will likely be only too happy to suggest (their) suitable training schemes if yr requirement is feasible > further passing of the buck). :smile:

Rgds / Charles.C

I work for a CB. We have certified small companies, I think the smallest was 5 workers. They usually bring in a consultant to help write the procedures and to do the internal audits.

Good luck,

Gail

Thanks for the advice guys, it was really helpful.

I too am part of a small company and the only reason we are going through BRC is because one of the companies we supply to is now requiring we are certified. We believe this is because they are expanding and we are looking forward to the increase in revenues that could present 

Also it will be easier for our sales guys in the future if we can just say we are certified rather than trying to negotiate and ultimately having to end up getting certified anyways

Polyman,

If you don't mind me asking, how small is your company?

Polyman,

If you don't mind me asking, how small is your company?

125-150, not the smallest, but small for manufacturing! 

I am in the same boat as you.  But my company employs about a hundred people and I am finding it very hard to retrain every single person including owner, plant manager, supervisors and all employees.  I wish that I only had to retrain 5 people that would be so easy.  l agree with what they have mentioned above saying that if you start now it is a great foundation for your growing company.  I hope this helps.  Remember you are not alone there are lots of people like myself in the same position as you.  Take a deep breath and take one small step forward every day.

I too am part of a small company and the only reason we are going through BRC is because one of the companies we supply to is now requiring we are certified. We believe this is because they are expanding and we are looking forward to the increase in revenues that could present 

Dear polyman,

Numerous reasons are possible but often it is simply a cost-effective method (for them) of "covering their back" or, as entitled in UK, "due diligence".

Regardless, it can be a beneficially self-educational process, but one negative IMO is that it never ends. :smile:

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear polyman,

 

Numerous reasons are possible but often it is simply a cost-effective method (for them) of "covering their back" or, as entitled in UK, "due diligence".

 

Regardless, it can be a beneficially self-educational process, but one negative IMO is that it never ends. :smile:

 

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear polyman,

 

Numerous reasons are possible but often it is simply a cost-effective method (for them) of "covering their back" or, as entitled in UK, "due diligence".

 

Regardless, it can be a beneficially self-educational process, but one negative IMO is that it never ends. :smile:

 

Rgds / Charles.C

Self -education shouldn't ever end.... the day you think you know it all is the day to change jobs   :shades:

Isn't it Continuous Personal Development?

If only we could learn something once and be done with!! :spoton:

If perfection is stagnation then Heaven is a swamp!

I am a new to the forum. I work for a really small start-up  company that makes  frozen vegetarian meat substitutes. A potential consumer will only work with us if we are GFSI certified. We determined that BRC seems the best suited for us, and it's my job to work on obtaining it. As I am doing more research on BRC, I'm beginning to feel we are too small for BRC or GFSI in general. In the production side there's just one other person and myself. When we are busy we might hire 1 or 2 temporary employees. It seems many of the clauses are intended for large companies, and don't seem to work or make sense for such a small company. Is it possible for small companies to get BRC?

 

Thanks for the advice,

Ben

Hi Ben,

I have my own view that BRC Food Safety certification can be achieved whatever the size of the company but I put the question to the BRC Technical Team and the response was as follows:

'There is no minimum size for companies which want to gain certification to the BRC Global Standards, as long as they are able to meet the requirements of the Standard. Some of the requirements might be difficult for small companies to put in place, but there are some very small companies which already have certification, so it is possible.'

Regards,

Tony

I've done some consultancy work for a company which consists of the MD & 4 staff! They got a BRC back in February.

Company I work for has barely 40 staff. and we've been BRC since we started.

Caz x

Not read all the replies but have you looked at SALSA accreditation? 

Prompted by a couple posts concerned with "new adopters" to the GFSI benchmark schemes, I did a brief comparison of some non-GFSI schemes audit standards. In my estimate, of only these 3 below (I really only looked at processing standards), NSF's would be closest to a GFSI benchmarked scheme, AIB's would be next and the SALSA standard would be last.

NSF's Supplier Assurance Audit Expectations: http://www.nsf.org/n...ssor_manual.pdf

AIB's Consolidated Standards for Inspection: https://www.aibonlin...ety_web_ENG.pdf

SALSA/Safe and Local Supplier Approval: http://www.salsafood..._2012_Rev_1.pdf

Anybody else know of non-GFSI schemes that would help a company move towards the GFSI audit scheme direction?

Anybody else know of non-GFSI schemes that would help a company move towards the GFSI audit scheme direction?

Prominent retailer approval?

Regards,

Tony

I got a Grade B on the first Audit, we are only 5-15 employees depending on season as we make 100% plant based Ice cream.

I think BRC or similar is a inevitable step but it might be too early for you it would all depend on your situation.

As previously said it would take up a lot of your time, and combining it with working in production can be hard - I did that and some workdays you restart thinking on a document several times.. 

Some things can make it easier..

I would recommend a pre-Audit as it seems it is the first time not only for the company but also for you.

It made me feel much safer, you reveal some non conformities which you can fix before the actual audit.

There is also packages of templates that saves a lot of time, although you need to make them suit your operation.

From what I have heard it is not that difficult to pass the first time, on the second audit you need to show a full year of documentation - the first audit 3 months is Ok I think.

Best of luck whatever you choose to do.

Just ask me if you wanna know more, I have my second Audit soon and will probably be around here a lot this is a great place.. :)

I am consulting a small business attempting a BRC 7 audit in a few (short) months with a pre-audit already performed.  The largest challenge that I'm experiencing with a small company (pretty much the owner staffing the front office and handling ALL administrative tasks) is the lack of measurements in general.  Much of the expected reporting has not needed to be performed, e.g. sales forecasts since he'd be reporting them to himself.