How to Declare Outsourced Processes Under BRCGS Issue 7

Hi folks.

I'm currently trying to transition the site I work at from Issue 6 to Issue 7. It's going reasonably well but we've hit a bit of a stumbling block.

Clause 3.8.1 states that "where any intermediate manufacturing operations are outsourced and undertaken off-site, this has been declared to the customer".

The interpretation goes on to state that "Sites could achieve compliance to this requirement by ensuring the details of the outsourced process step are clearly detailed on the approved product specification".

A number of my colleagues are less than thrilled with this as they'd rather not divulge to some of our customers that we outsource some of our processes. I'm curious as to how close to the wind we can sail with this. Obviously we want to comply with the requirements of the standard, but we don't want to plaster it in large friendly letters across to top of our quote letters.

Aside from putting it in the fine print at the bottom of the quote, are there any other ways of handling this?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

I get where the concern is coming from, but it's kinda sketch to not be disclosing already.  I'm not a BRC guru, but just from general GFSI standards you should make sure your SOP's are solid for the 3rd party service provider here as a contract manufacturer.  I don't think you need to spell it out in any quote letters your guys are putting out, but the product spec should at least mention "may be produced in approved co-manufacturing facilities as needed" or something to that effect.  Pretty sure these sites need to be BRC certified in order for you to represent your product as BRC compliant.