Metal Detection - when is it required?

My company is a small food and beverage ingredients distributor that does custom mixing / blending from time to time (combine 3-4 dry ingredients in mixer, then fill to final packaging). We are looking towards BRC Certification in the future and I am wondering if we must implement a metal detection CCP into the process (metal detection after final packaging). Currently we rely on the HACCP plans & 3rd Party Audit Reports of raw material suppliers to adequately control risk of metal / foreign bodies.

My gut tells me yes since raw material will be open and handled by production employees and will be exposed to stainless steel mixing equipment, that metal detection is a necessary CCP to include if we intend to be BRC Certified. Can anyone clarify?  

If metal is a hazard then there needs to be a control in place to prevent that from going out to the consumer. And from the sounds of it Stainless Steel mixing equipment will create a hazard. Most auditors will ask "what happens if a piece was to break off that wasn't noticeable through post production audits of the equipment?". Metal Detection is the most common and reliable means to reduce the hazard to a negligible level. We package consumer size products and have inline metal detection before packing into the boxes. We're not BRC certified, we have to adhere to SQF rules but in that regards they seem similar. 

If metal is a hazard then there needs to be a control in place to prevent that from going out to the consumer. And from the sounds of it Stainless Steel mixing equipment will create a hazard. Most auditors will ask "what happens if a piece was to break off that wasn't noticeable through post production audits of the equipment?". Metal Detection is the most common and reliable means to reduce the hazard to a negligible level. We package consumer size products and have inline metal detection before packing into the boxes. We're not BRC certified, we have to adhere to SQF rules but in that regards they seem similar. 

Thank you. After researching further, the literature is quite instructive on this matter. Will need to have our company invest in metal detection equipment to be installed in production area. 

Dear Jayh,
 
As you found out yourself the BRC is requiring metal detector or foreign body detector.
In the position statement of issue 6 (don't know why it is not included in the position statement of issue 7) is a decision tree for metal detector.
It helps you to decide if a metal (or foreign body) detector is needed according BRC.
 

decision tree metal detector.JPG   71.66KB   3 downloads
(reference: F042, BRC Food issue 6, position statement, 8-05-2012)