2 replies to this topic

[BALA Prasanna]

Hi team,

 

I work in the food industry, producing biscuits, cakes, confectionery, and snacks (potato chips and corn chips). We are planning to pursue BRCGS Food Safety certification, and I need clarification regarding Clause 8 – Production Risk Zones (High Risk, High Care, and Ambient High Care).

Based on our product category, I would like to understand whether these requirements apply to our operations, and if so, which production risk zone classification is appropriate for baked and fried snack products.

Could anyone provide guidance or share relevant experience? This will help us ensure proper readiness for certification.

[Tony-C]

Hi Bala,

 

If all your products are ambient stable then under BRCGS definitions they will fall into the open product areas low-risk category.

 

These decision trees are from Issue 8 but I think they are still useful, 1 is Chilled and Frozen, 2 is Ambient:

 

 BRC Food Standard 8 Production Zone Decision Tree 1.jpg   165.41KB   0 downloads

 

 BRC Food Standard 8 Production Zone Decision Tree 2.jpg   168.5KB   0 downloads

 

Clause 8 applies where a site produces products where the production process, or part of it, requires high-risk, high-care and/or ambient high-care production zones (see clause 4.3.1 for this assessment and Appendix 2 for the definition of these production zones). Note that if you are manufacturing products with fresh additions such as fresh cream cakes that require refrigeration then those will fall into a high-risk category.

 

You might find these topics useful:

 

Risk Zoning for Tempeh Production: Low-Risk or High-Risk Under BRCGS?

 

Assessment for Production Risk Zones based on Clause 4.3.1 of BRC Issue 9

 

There may be others, search the BRCGS - Food Safety Forums.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[GMO]

I agree Tony, I thought those decision trees were useful.  I suspect that some auditors though took them too literally because there will always be exceptions.

 

As for snacks, if they're low water activity most sites would call them low risk, however, I do think some fried snack manufacturers underestimate the risk of salmonella in their high fat products which are likely to have similar protective effects in the gut as chocolate.  That said, incidence are likely to be low and IME most sites will describe themselves as low risk for your category.