BRC Issue 9 Guidance on a smokehouse oven
Hello,
We used to be BRC certified, and have high-risk and low-risk areas, as well as one room that we had a smokehouse oven in with only one entry/exit point to that oven, so meat goes in raw, comes out smoked and cooked. I remember prior to Issue 9, there was guidance in the guidance documents that it was allowable with a cleanup, verified, etc. But I believe Issue 9 had a new guidance document that said there had to be a plan to replace it. I don't have access to the guidance documents any more, and can't find them if I downloaded them, but I was wondering if someone could verify this, as my boss is asking if we could get BRC certified once again. Thanks in advance for the help!
To replace what?
To replace what?
To replace the single door smokehouse (or oven, as applicable) with something that operates more as a pass-through. That way you don't mingle raw and cooked in the same room.
6.1.5 - says verification and validation at a frequency based on risk and performance of equipment.
Just curious - why does your boss want BRCGS again?
No, I'm talking about designating high-risk areas. 8.1.2. The meat goes in the smokehouse raw, and comes out RTE and high-risk. There was guidance on 8.1.2 that allowed single door ovens for many iterations of BRC with proper methods of sanitizing, but I believe in Issue 9 it changed. That's what I'm asking about.
As far as going back to BRC, that's a long journey of a story.
It hasn't changed in that context. You do have a physical segregation between this room and the other area of the site, right? Just make sure you are disinfecting materials on entry.
Hi bnlfanmatt,
BRCGS will accept the use of single-door cooking systems where a thorough risk assessment has been completed as an interim measure prior to the eventual upgrading.
I’ve posted the relevant information from the BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 9 8.1.2 Guidance:
High-risk areas are expected to be self-contained and fully segregated. Best practice is that, where there is a cook step in the production of high-risk products, the cooker becomes the transfer point into the high-risk area via a double-door system (i.e. the cooker is loaded in the low-risk area and unloaded directly into the high-risk area).
While new cooker installations and new-build sites must incorporate double-door cooking systems, many existing plants are equipped with single-door cookers and have established risk-based procedures for the loading and unloading of the cookers to prevent cross-contamination of cooked products. The Standard will, therefore, accept the use of single-door cooking systems where a thorough risk assessment has been completed as an interim measure prior to the eventual upgrading. Operating practices must be consistently achievable and effective, and prevent cross-contamination of cooked products.
The risk assessment must consider, and control potential risk, from:
• crossover between cooked and raw products in the unloading area
• operators and their clothing (e.g. handling of cooked products by operators who have previously worked with raw products)
• hand-contamination resulting from touching surfaces such as common equipment, cooker control panels and cooker door handles
• equipment used for transferring product into and out of cookers
• airborne contamination from low-risk processes (e.g. the loading and unloading area should be separate from the main low-risk processing area)
• the floor (e.g. contamination of the wheels of trolleys transferring cooked products to the high-risk area).
When cooked products are unloaded from the cooker, they must be moved immediately to a designated high-risk area to meet the requirements of the Standard. The auditor will assess the procedures in operation where single-door cookers are in use to ensure they are adequate, effective and understood by operators. The audit report will describe the procedures in place to protect the cooked products from contamination.
Kind regards,
Tony