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How to approve suppliers that don't have GFSI Certification?

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classic

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Posted 05 September 2018 - 02:32 PM

We have a supplier that does not have a GFSI benchmarked Food Safety Standard.  They have the Global Red Meat Standard (GRMS) which covers product safety, traceability, HACCP and GMP.  Under BRC v 7 we have accepted this and so did the BRC auditor at our last audit..  We are unable to carry out a supplier audit due to the company involved being in Europe and the costs involved. 

 

Reading through section 3.5.1.2 in the new BRC v 8 it mentions a valid certification to the applicable BRC Global Standard or GFSI-benchmarked standard and supplier audits. 

 

Can anyone give us some advice. We have a copy of their certificates as the product may come from a number of sites but not their full audit reports.

 

Thanks



Marshenko

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Posted 05 September 2018 - 03:19 PM

Hmm.

 

If it isn't a "mandatory" requirement, you can always do a Risk Assessment and make sure you receive Certificates of Analysis or Conformance on a regular basis (maybe quarterly?).  At least IMO.

Also, their certificate should suffice, but see if they will give you the full audit as well.  Find out if they plan to get a GFSI certification in the near future, and point out the clause that you mentioned; tell them they may lose business as a result.

Also, look for an alternate supplier.



Marshenko

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Posted 05 September 2018 - 03:22 PM

Also, according to the GRMS website:

 

"Since October 2009, the Global Red Meat Standard has been recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which drives equivalency between GRMS and other commercial standards recognised by GFSI.  

Benchmarking procedures with GFSI will be performed in 2018 to re-bechmark the GFSI-recognised certification programmes."

 

https://grms.org/abo...nal-recognition

 

http://www.mygfsi.co...programmes.html

 

It looks as though you have nothing to worry about.



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Charles.C

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Posted 06 September 2018 - 10:33 PM

Also, according to the GRMS website:

 

"Since October 2009, the Global Red Meat Standard has been recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which drives equivalency between GRMS and other commercial standards recognised by GFSI.  

Benchmarking procedures with GFSI will be performed in 2018 to re-bechmark the GFSI-recognised certification programmes."

 

https://grms.org/abo...nal-recognition

 

http://www.mygfsi.co...programmes.html

 

It looks as though you have nothing to worry about.

 

Indeed -

 

Attached File  GFSI recognised Standards.png   977.63KB   5 downloads


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


redfox

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Posted 07 September 2018 - 12:29 AM

Hello classic,

 

Based on our experience on our last audit June 2018 against BRC7, we have minor NCs due to the foreign supplier that are not GFSI scheme certified. We only send questionnaire, but the auditor did not accept our procedure. He cited that a supplier that is not GFSI certified, cannot be rated as LOW RISK supplier, and it should be audited by us (buyers) of the HACCP program and traceabilty.

 

Our CA on that NC is to revised our procedure and it states that all suppliers that is not GFSI scheme certified must be audited at least annually by third party auditor or by us.

 

He okayed the CA and we have our grade A certificate.

 

regards,

redfox



Tony-C

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Posted 18 September 2018 - 05:20 AM

Hello classic,

 

Based on our experience on our last audit June 2018 against BRC7, we have minor NCs due to the foreign supplier that are not GFSI scheme certified. We only send questionnaire, but the auditor did not accept our procedure. He cited that a supplier that is not GFSI certified, cannot be rated as LOW RISK supplier, and it should be audited by us (buyers) of the HACCP program and traceabilty.

 

Our CA on that NC is to revised our procedure and it states that all suppliers that is not GFSI scheme certified must be audited at least annually by third party auditor or by us.

 

He okayed the CA and we have our grade A certificate.

 

regards,

redfox

 

Hi redox,

 

I don't think the auditor was correct or they considered that the products/suppliers were not low risk:

 

BRC 7 3.5.1.2: The approval and monitoring procedure shall be based on risk and include one or a combination of:

• certification (e.g. to BRC Global Standards or other GFSI-recognised scheme)

• supplier audits, with a scope to include product safety, traceability, HACCP review and good manufacturing practices, undertaken by an experienced and demonstrably competent product safety auditor

or, for suppliers assessed as low risk only, supplier questionnaires.

Where approval is based on questionnaires, these shall be reissued at least every 3 years and suppliers will be required to notify the site of any significant changes in the interim.

Guidance:

Where risk assessment (completed as part of this clause) indicates that a supplier is low risk (e.g. due to history of trading with the site, the nature of the raw materials traded etc.) the completion of a supplier questionnaire may be sufficient. If a supplier questionnaire is the only mechanism used to assess a supplier (i.e. there are no additional activities such as supplier audits) then it is important that the questionnaire (and replies from the ingredient supplier) contains all the relevant information to allow the site to confidently make a decision on approval.

 

For BRC 8 (effective from 1st February 2019) 3.5.1.2: The approval procedure shall be based on risk and include either one or a combination of:

• a valid certification… etc.

• supplier audits …. etc.

or

where a valid risk-based justification is provided and the supplier is assessed as low risk only, a completed supplier questionnaire may be used for initial approval. The questionnaire shall have a scope that includes product safety, traceability, HACCP review and good manufacturing practices, and it shall have been reviewed and verified by a demonstrably competent person.

Guidance:

Similar to BRC 7 but note: The auditor will expect to see, and will challenge, risk assessments.

 

Either way I think you have introduced a more robust system now so that can only be for the good  :thumbup:

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony



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redfox

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Posted 19 September 2018 - 03:30 AM

Hello Tony,

 

Thank you very much for the enlightenment. 

 

Our SAQ is also a contributing factor because it lacks substance, not so robust that should include HACCP and traceability. Another is our risk assessment that auditor questioned, that we couldn't support any documents, reply from supplier of any technical data, news article that could support or claim that a certain foreign suppliers (from Thailand and USA) is LOW RISK suppliers. We don't have problems with domestic supplier because we can conduct audit on their site.

 

We just couldn't argue to the auditor of the mindset that we might end up in a bad situation. We just follow his suggestion and we got our certificate.

 

regards,

redfox



Charles.C

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Posted 19 September 2018 - 01:25 PM

Hi Redfox,

 

As per some previous threads, some BRC auditors in yr Locale appear to have unorthodox interpretations of the BRC FS.

 

Hopefully above is not a widespread characteristic. If it is, it presumably  implies that  the relevant, oversight,  Accreditation Organisation seldom vets the detail of the CB's final audit reports/associated Corrective Actions.

 

PS - @ Classic, just to nitpick, despite the thread title, "GFSI certification" does not exist.


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C




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