13 replies to this topic

[ads78]

Hi all,

I am in the middle of an assignment that requires me to evaluate a number of food industry standards. Unfortunately, short of buying them( which is rather expensive!) i'm finding it hard to find info. I have access to the BRC standard as the company is certified. The main points are how does EFSIS differ from BRC? What do lawlab and lawcred do and can this be classed as there own standard? Is the new ISO standard as comprehensive as the BRC standard?

I really am learning from the ground up here. I am currently a fresh produce QA looking to qualify as a technical manager. Any advice on resources would be greatly appreciated!

[Simon]

Hi all,

I am in the middle of an assignment that requires me to evaluate a number of food industry standards. Unfortunately, short of buying them (which is rather expensive!) i'm finding it hard to find info. I have access to the BRC standard as the company is certified. The main points are how does EFSIS differ from BRC? What do lawlab and lawcred do and can this be classed as there own standard? Is the new ISO standard as comprehensive as the BRC standard?

I really am learning from the ground up here. I am currently a fresh produce QA looking to qualify as a technical manager. Any advice on resources would be greatly appreciated!

Hello Ads78, I'm a bit busy this week to provide a complete answer so...

You might want to take a look at this discussion: Differences between IFS and BRC I'm not sure about the differences between EFSIS and BRC, maybe someone else can help you here?

Lawlabs are a Certfication Body (they audit companies) for a number of Standards such as BRC Food and Packaging. I think LAWCRED is LAWLABS own due diligence standard, perhaps not used that much these days with the more widely recognised BRC / IFS / ISO 22000 et al.

ISO 22000 is not as detailed as standards such as BRC as they it is meant to be used by any organisation in the food chain from a dairy farmer to a hotel restaurant. BRC and such standards are very prescriptive and tell you in minute detail what to do because they are focussed on a narrower part of the food industry.

Welcome to the forums, hope this helps.

Regards,
Simon

[ads78]

Thanks for the help

[Charles.C]

A lot of yr question is probably answered on this site however unfortunately probably not in one place. Some searching might help but it is time-consuming, the site needs an archivealist.
Haven’t seen the latest edition of EFSIS food standard however the previous one included all of the then current BRC plus some more within a rearranged format. Believe the latest one is more close to the present BRC. I think the concept is that, at a minimum, certification to EFSIS automatically overlaps BRC, any users here should be able to confirm this.

As far as BRC / ISO22k goes, a comparison must be on this site somewhere by now. As a brief introduction can see this –
http://www.swift.co....edia/eycott.pdf
(may be getting bit out of date now, also 2MB, suggest to save first)

If you are interested in the history and economic aspects of these stds (other than ISO22k) this is quite interesting but pretty heavy going -

http://trade.ec.euro...adoc_127969.pdf.

Nonetheless, still think some section-by-section comparisons are around somewhere here.
There is also a new EFSIS standard being promoted as a reduced version of BRC (since their assimilation by another organization maybe?)

Rgds / Charles.C

Edited by Charles.C, 13 March 2007 - 01:04 PM.

[cazyncymru]

A lot of yr question is probably answered on this site however unfortunately probably not in one place. Some searching might help but it is time-consuming, the site needs an archivealist.
Haven’t seen the latest edition of EFSIS food standard however the previous one included all of the then current BRC plus some more within a rearranged format. Believe the latest one is more close to the present BRC. I think the concept is that, at a minimum, certification to EFSIS automatically overlaps BRC, any users here should be able to confirm this.

As far as BRC / ISO22k goes, a comparison must be on this site somewhere by now. As a brief introduction can see this –
http://www.swift.co....edia/eycott.pdf
(may be getting bit out of date now, also 2MB, suggest to save first)

If you are interested in the history and economic aspects of these stds (other than ISO22k) this is quite interesting but pretty heavy going -

http://trade.ec.euro...adoc_127969.pdf.

Nonetheless, still think some section-by-section comparisons are around somewhere here.
There is also a new EFSIS standard being promoted as a reduced version of BRC (since their assimilation by another organization maybe?)

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi

In a nutshell we have used EFSIS as a certification body that carries out BRC audits. They may have their own standards, but i've never come across them.

LAWLABS and LABCRED is a lab based audit, where you can choose the scope and have your in-house laboratory accredited against the methodology that you write. A similar scheme is CLAS, run by CAMPDEN.

Personally i think both schemes (Lawlabs and Clas) are a waste of money and resources. You can state you have lab accreditation but just have 1 test method that is accredited. the periphary included in this standard are all part of GLP. If it wasn't for supermarkets insisting we had Lab Accreditation, i would drop it TODAY!!

Cazxx (from the sunny isle of Mull this week!)

[Simon]

Cazxx (from the sunny isle of Mull this week!)

What did you do wrong?

[cazyncymru]

What did you do wrong?

I'm "finding myself".......but not with much luck!!

C xx

[Simon]

I'm "finding myself".......but not with much luck!!

C xx

If it's any help you were last seen in the Isle of Mull.

[Charles.C]

Dear Simon,

Veering slightly back to thread, regarding the difference between BRC / EFSIS, I extracted this -

"What is the BRC Technical Standard?

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) Technical Standard for Companies Supplying Retailer Branded Food Products was developed in 1998 to provide a common standard for companies supplying retailer branded food products. The BRC Technical Standard was developed by UK supermarket retailers to assist them in their fulfillment of legal obligations and protection of the consumer. In March 2003 the standard was renamed the BRC Global Standard - Food. (The contents have not changed)

The BRC Technical Standard is recognised by the majority of UK supermarket retailers and is being increasingly used by foodservices companies to approve suppliers. In many instances it is can be a pre-condition to supply certain companies. Food manufacturers are also using this standard as a basis of supplier approval. There are BRC accredited companies in many countries in the EU and as far away as Canada, Brazil and Thailand. The scheme should now be referred to as the BRC Global Standard - Food, although it is often referred to as BRC Accreditation.

One of its initial advantages was that it could reduce the number of food safety audits by each retailer and allow technologists to concentrate on other areas such as product development or specific quality issues. In practice, supermarkets may also insist on their own audits, particularly for high risk suppliers or apply other codes of best practice in addition to the BRC standard. There is also a separate technical standard for companies manufacturing and supplying food packaging materials for retailer branded products.

There is also another standard known as EFSIS which is not exactly the same as the BRC standard but it does incorporate all the BRC requirements. The EFSIS standard lists an additional 15 requirements at foundation level, 3 at higher level and a further 18 recommendations. The contents are also structured in a different order to the BRC standard. Both the BRC and the EFSIS standards are widely used and equally accepted in the food industry. "

( http://www.food-tech...uk/brcstand.htm )

However I think this is slightly old ref. and refers to previous BRC version (the 'levels' have now been merged??), I believe the 2 standards have now moved closer together. Some companies preferred the EFSIS standard since it went a bit "further".

Rgds / Charles.C


@Cazx - Don't miss the dolphins ! (acc. to the website anyway) LOL

added - just noticed that a seemingly more up-to-date page on above link has this -

"EFSIS Standards (now the same as the BRC standard)" and also

"There was another standard known as EFSIS, which did contain additional requirements but the latest version is now the same as the BRC standard - EFSIS now just refers to the certification company." Looks like you were spot on Cazx.

Edited by Charles.C, 15 March 2007 - 09:02 AM.

[MartLgn]

One thing that really set the old EFSIS standard apart from BRC was the fact that the audits were carried out by auditors employed by EFSIS and paid a flat salary to hopefully maintain impartiality that is questionable amongst third party auditors in general. This was when EFSIS was an independant organisation, I doubt this is the case now it is merely the food safety certification arm of SAI Global. It is ironic that in the mid 90's the EFSIS standard was the only one acceptable to all major grocery and wholesale multiples, this soon changed once they realised they would have much more influence on the content of the BRC standards through their representation on the BRC technical comitees and in the UK at least the rest (along with the EFSIS standard) is history.

[Charles.C]

Dear All,

Out of historical curiosity, I did a bit of searching in the archives for posted comparisons of various standards. There were not many and some had broken links however I extracted the 2 links which were the most impressive I could find (IMO) together with the thread ref -

August 2004
"2 latest documents circulated to the ISO Working Groups. First an Excel sheet comparing the clauses for ISO 9001, ISO/DIS 22000, BRC and IFS (bear in mind that this was created before the WG meeting in Jan. As a result the FDIS may have been expanded to cover a number of the gaps in the clauses). "

GFSI_22000.xls ( 27k )

( http://www.ifsqn.com...mp;hl=iso 22000 )

March 2004
"I have attached an Excel Sheet of a matrix showing ISO & BRC cross references which I use in our QMS/Hygiene Manual. Hope it is of help. "
Attached File(s)
Process_Maps_Matrix.xls ( 22.5k )

( http://www.ifsqn.com...p?showtopic=315 )

Hope these are of interest (No 2 is also in doc. exchange - see Shelly, probably the first one deserves to be there also?) but note that the dates mean that some changes will surely have occurred. There were also some good looking ones in German but this regrettably outside my ability.

Rgds / Charles.C

added - not smart enough to get the copied direct links to work so will have to use the thread link first if you are interested

Edited by Charles.C, 15 March 2007 - 03:29 PM.

[Simon]

an Excel sheet comparing the clauses for ISO 9001, ISO/DIS 22000, BRC and IFS (bear in mind that this was created before the WG meeting in Jan. As a result the FDIS may have been expanded to cover a number of the gaps in the clauses).

 GFSI_22000.xls   27KB   41 downloads

an Excel Sheet of a matrix showing ISO & BRC cross references

 Cross_reference_Standards.pdf   830.13KB   108 downloads

[Charles.C]

Dear Simon,

Thanks for showing the way. Actually yr second one is in same thread as I indicated and is useful but the prettier version comes just after –

 process_maps_matrix.xls   22.5KB   43 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C

PS If anyone is really interested, the other threads with useful looking links were -

( http://www.ifsqn.com...mp;hl=iso 22000 )
( http://www.ifsqn.com...mp;hl=iso 22000 ) (see 'Franco' but will need copy I22k)
( http://www.ifsqn.com...mp;hl=iso 22000 )
( http://www.ifsqn.com...t... )

Edited by Charles.C, 16 March 2007 - 02:01 AM.

[Simon]

Lot's of information to pick through Ads78, I hope it's helpful to you. Thanks everyone for your input.

Regards,
Simon