BRCGS8- 3.5.1.2- risk assessment raw material required

Hi everybody, I do not understand the form of assessment and give the frequency of assessment according to each level of risk of 3.5.1.2. What if the supplier is high and medium risk?

Hi everybody, 

I do not understand the form of assessment and give the frequency of assessment according to each level of risk of 3.5.1.2 What if the supplier is high and medium risk?

Hi khannhuyen,

This is a very wide topic and involves a variety of possible methodologies..

You may get some idea of BRC's suggested/recommended "solutions" by (a) studying BRC's Interpretation Guidelines (paid) and (b) various examples on this Forum.

The degree of complexity may relate to your product/process.

Clause 3.5.1.2 is typically answered in combination with 3.5.1.1.

Note that BRC do not specifically require an assessment of  Supplier Risk despite their own use of the terminology  "Low Risk" supplier.

Elsewhere, BRC are reported as recognising a Supplier as either Low Risk or Not Low Risk. (eg see the file sp1 below),

The thread linked below offers some viewpoints/examples related to BRC's requirements (various other BRC threads exist on this forum) -

https://www.ifsqn.co...al/#entry100194.

BRC - sp1.pdf   969.72KB   190 downloads

So how is the frequency of approval based on level of risk? Is it every year? Is it every year?

So how is the frequency of approval based on level of risk? Is it every year? Is it every year?

This is mentioned in 3.5.1.3.

Depending on situation, it is Manufacturer specified/justified while noting the BRC-Questionnaire restriction.

Examples of (relatively simple)/(more complex) responses are illustrated in the Excel (sheet 3) and Note (3) /1st Post in the link within Post 2 above.

For supplier approval, the standard lists accreditation to a GFSI-benchmarked standard, supplier audits, or (for low risk suppliers only) SAQs as approval criteria, but version 8 doesn’t define the validity period for approval. Where suppliers are approved based on accreditation to a GFSI-benchmarked standard, you’re generally expected to renew approval at the expiry of their accreditation certificate… But there’s nothing to indicate how long a supplier could remain approved on the basis of 1^st party audit, for example, so your best bet would be to define that for your own site in your supplier approval and performance monitoring procedure.

In terms of raw material approval, there are a couple of clauses that you can look at together:

The raw material specification has a validity period of 3 years (clause 3.6.4)

Clause 5.5.1.1 states:

“The risk assessment shall form the basis for the raw material acceptance and testing procedure and for the processes adopted for supplier approval and monitoring.

The risk assessment for a raw material shall be updated:

•             when there is a change in a raw material, the processing of a raw material, or the supplier of a raw material

•             if a new risk emerges

•             following a product recall or withdrawal, where a specific raw material has been implicated

•             at least every 3 years.”

So, at a minimum, the raw material risk assessment must be updated every 3 years.

The raw material vulnerability assessment has to be formally reviewed annually (clause 5.4.2)