Has anyone heard about the BRC 1 in 3 Unannounced Rule?
Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone has heard of this new standard BRC is launching. 1 in 3 unannounced rule? Does this mean BRC is coming our with a new version?
Not familiar with this, but sounds like it is similar to the SQF 1 in 3 unannounced audits. Basically, your facility must have an unannounced audit at least every 3 years.
Yes, our auditor informed us last month that this would be coming in next year (BRCGS Packaging)
I feel that there is a defficincy in the communication of these position statements by BRCGS. How many emails do we receive realting to BRCGS trainings, or other "for sale topics", but none on the announcement of position statements. I am also surprised that the CB's have not communicated this to clients, as I have been in contact with NSF for the past 4-6 weeks concerning our upcoming recertification audit, and a last minute schedule change due to the NSF auditor not able to travel into the USA, due to Covid.
I feel that there is a defficincy in the communication of these position statements by BRCGS. How many emails do we receive realting to BRCGS trainings, or other "for sale topics", but none on the announcement of position statements. I am also surprised that the CB's have not communicated this to clients, as I have been in contact with NSF for the past 4-6 weeks concerning our upcoming recertification audit, and a last minute schedule change due to the NSF auditor not able to travel into the USA, due to Covid.
BRCGS is no longer a consortium as before. It has become a corporation and its ultimate purpose is shifting toward profits for shareholders. Then you can easily recognise its priorities for marketing. I unsubscribed its newsletters already.
I've got no idea of the average proportion of auditing & certification revenues; AFAIK, most CBs also offer laboratory, inspection, technical training and consulting services which might have more demands. High Standard (eg. GFSI) certification appears more costly and in a niche, unlike the mediocre ISO9001. Companies can maintain such none-to-low profit businesses. The aims are rather to show off their competence or superiority against competitors and to increase their brand recognition, so that clients sometimes feel disregarded. That practice isn't rare. Just saying my opinions.
If you are BRC certified as we have been for a number of years, you should have been advised of this some time ago. Our auditor as well as our CB has made mention of the 1 in 3 requirement for unannounced audits. Of course we have yet to give them a date or year yet.
Our Certification body has notified us that THEY will inform us of which year the unannounced audit will be conducted, supposedly sufficiently ahead of time to allow planning for staff absences and other potential concerns.
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BRCGS issued "BRCGS 079 : Position Statement and Protocol on Unannounced Audits Meeting the GFSI Benchmark" since Oct 2020 about the unannounced audit. It is site's responsibility to update PS timely. You can subscribe the news letters or Facebook.
Position Statements from BRCGS are communicated to sites and CBs using email, posted onto our website and included in newsletters.
However, they are often blocked by site's firewalls, or if staff change and information has not been updated on the BRCGS Directory.
All the information is on our website, so can be checked at any time.
Our site has had BRC Food Safety for a number of years.
During our 2021 audit the auditor discussed the move to 1 in 3 unannounced audits, which we were already aware was coming. They suggested that we would have a choice of which year in the next 3 years our unannounced audit would be, however the CB has assigned this for us (2022).
I wanted to clarify whether it's entirely up to the CB to choose? I understand they need to manage their schedule and don't want everyone electing year 3 - just not 100% clear to me what the official rules are.
In 2020 GFSI published a new benchmark. Included within this benchmark is the requirement that all benchmarked standards introduce a mandatory unannounced audit at least once every 3 years. BRCGS Food, Packaging and Storage & Distribution Standards are all benchmarked and have therefore introduced this requirement. (BRCGS Agents & Brokers is also GFSI benchmarked but GFSI have not applied the mandatory unannounced to the agent and brokers scopes).
This means that all sites certificated to Food, Packaging or Storage and Distribution will be required to have an unannounced audit in 2022 - 2024.
BRCGS published a Position Statement (BRCGS079) explaining how this will work for BRCGS Standards. Position statements are published on our website and communicated to sites (the information is included in the monthly list of all changes and the site bulletin) and similar updates are provided to certification bodies. Sites that do not think they are receiving these are advised to check their firewalls/junk email systems which sometimes prevent delivery. It is also worth checking that the contact information on the BRCGS Directory is correct and up to date.
It is the responsibility of the certification body to identify which year the unannounced audit will take place and notify the site. If there are justified reasons why an unannounced audit cannot take place in a specific year, these should be communicated to the certification body who will assess the concerns raised. However, it should be noted that sites cannot chose which year the unannounced audit takes place in, and it is a requirement of certification that the unannounced audit takes place every 3 years.