BRC or ISO for a medium size food production factory?
Hi,
I work in a medium size food production factory - we produce low risk cake products - we colour and pack sugar paste/fondant & cake mixes,re-package cake decorations and food colours/pastes.
We then send these to our head office who store and dispatch to our customers.
We are looking to expand and to hopefully sell to supermarkets- we are unsure what accreditation we will need to win the supermarkets?
- BRC - both food and store and packaging
- BRC - just store and packaging -for the head office
- ISO 22000
- SALSA
Obviously there as big cost differences and work involved, we don't want to invest in this if not required or if a lesser accreditation will be accepted or indeed there is no advantage to our business growth.
I have read many of your useful comments on the difference between the two but nothing I've read helps us make this decision.... can anyone enlighten me and help me figure it out?
Thanks in advance -
Most supermarkets won't touch a supplier without BRC, despite the opinion amongst other auditors that it's a bit of a con and it's only accepted these days because of the name. SALSA isn't really something major customers will be interested in as it's pretty simple to attain and doesn't necessarily cover as much as other awarding bodies.
Thanks Andy, so that's SALSA out of the picture - but what about BRC or ISO - would you say better to go for BRC straight away? or would ISO be look upon favourably ? as a build too - or is it a waste of time and money to do it that way?
Personally I couldn't tell you anything about ISO as I'd never even heard of it before I joined this forum. Since this is still my first employer and we've never spoken about ISO I only knew of BRC as one the more prestigious awarding bodies. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on the situation
ISO22000 is not a recognised GFSI standard. Since you are in the UK, you might want to consider using SALSA as a stepping stone to BRC. It is accepted, and I understand that many supermarkets will accept your products if you are SALSA accredited. They will not allow you to manufacturer their own brands unless you are BRC.
I would agree with BrummyJim. To supply UK supermarkets you would be advised to go for a GFSI standard accreditation such as BRC, certainly if you want to manufacture own labels (although it won't stop them from auditing you as well if you do !). For small companies SALSA accreditation is also accepted.
Good luck!
Minnie
As you have involvement in both food elements manufacturing and packaging, both BRC Standards are applicable. If you opt for the packaging standard, the auditor will be asking about where the food elements have come from and expect to see some certification documentation. As Andy said most of the biggest supermarkets are requesting BRC certification as a minimum. They have some confidence in the suppliers if they know you are working to meet a set of stringent clauses and therefore don't need to carry out lots of audits.
At least the low risk category is 'somewhat less difficult' to achieve. Less hoops to jump through!
As You also produce food, I'm afraid the appropriate BRC standard would be BRC food. You Can find more info about certifications, including paired certification, on the BRC website.
The SALSA is a mini certification for the suppliers who can't be expected to have the monetary and human means to meet the BRC standard. As said above you could also consider it a first step towards BRC, but I doubt the clients will value it as much as an BRC.
ISo 22000 is not GFSI recognized, however FSSC 22000 is. As this is quite recent, it is not known from everyone, particularly clients.
Salsa is basically a "good manufacturing practice" certificate.
The main difference between BRC and FSSC 22000 lies in the fact that the FSSC is focused on an exigency of result, whereas BRC clearly sets also exigencies of means.
I hope I helped.
Regards
Pauline
Thank you Pauline, very helpful, clear and concise :biggrin: