1. Technical Packaging Manager
BRC Global Standards
Joanna Griffiths
Technical Packaging Manager 1

2. Heritage of the BRC Global Standards
Brand owners inspect their own suppliers
Issue 3 incorporates non-food packaging
Before
History
The Standard was developed in order to reduce the burden of audits that suppliers had from customers – retailers
BRC Technical Advisory Committee formed to develop Food Safety standard, Food Packaging standard soon followed
Issue 3 was the first to include non-food packaging and Issue 4 now covers food and non-food packaging from primary to tertiary.
Issue 4 seeks to reinforce quality aspects in addition to hygiene and cleanliness, particularly around printed packaging.
Brand owners join to create a common Standard for Food
Issue 1 Global Standard for Food Packaging published
Issue 4 published in February 2011

3. Managing the Standards
Governance & Strategy Committee
International users
Define policy & oversee progress
Global Standards Team
Certification Body Co-operation groups
Discussion between CB’s on technical issues & progressing implementation
Technical Advisory Committees
One for each Standard
Retailers and other stakeholders
Production & review of Standards
Interpretation issues
Review training materials
This slide summarises the management of the Standards.
The most important parts are the Technical Advisory Committees, the composition of these committees is very important to bring together expertise from all parts of industry.
Secondly, the user feedback process. Consultation documents go out to all of the certification bodies and key stakeholders worldwide, ensuring that we get feedback from as varied a range of inputs as possible.
User Feedback
All governed by agreed terms of reference 3 3

4. Storage and Distribution Storage & Distribution
BRC Global Standards
Storage and Distribution
Food
Consumer Products
Storage & Distribution
Packaging
Packaging
There are a suite of four Standards, encompassing all sorts of products and services, and they follow the supply chain from packaging manfuacture, through food or consumer goods manufacture, through to storage and distribution of all of those products.
Each Standard is written on the same principles of senior management commitment and hazard and risk analysis.

5. Key features of the BRC Global Standards programme
Third party accredited programme
Retailer led
International stakeholder consultation
Rapid response to issues/developments
Suite of training programmes targeted to all stakeholders
Centrally controlled compliance program
Central database of audited manufacturers
Key features of the programme include:
Third party accredited programme
Retailer led
International stakeholder consultation
Rapid response to issues/developments
Suite of training programmes targeted to all stakeholders
Centrally controlled compliance program
Central database of audited manufacturers

6. BRC certificates by Standard (November 2010)
Food is the most mature and most widely adopted Standard, with over 13,000 sites worldwide.
Packaging is following on close behind, again with a spread of over 50 countries from Australia to north America and everywhere in between.
This represents a huge potential for growth for the Packaging Standard, and major specifiers are stating that they require BRC certification from their packaging suppliers.
Submitted by > 100 Certification Bodies

7. Packaging certificated sites by country
(top ten, April 2011)
This slide shows where our top 15 sites are.
The UK is our most mature market but we still see strong growth. Many major packaging suppliers have and maintain BRC certification, and many brands and supermarkets use certification as a pre-requisite for approval as a supplier.
We see this trend across the world, brands and retailers in the US and Australia are also request certification in order to become a supplier.
This chart shows the packaging Standard is very popular in Europe, but there is strong representation from across the world. There are 35 other countries who use the Standard as we see this continue to grow.
UNITED KINGDOM 558
GERMANY 165
NETHERLANDS
ITALY 117
FRANCE 73
SWITZERLAND
POLAND 53
TURKEY 49
SPAIN 45
BELGIUM 43 7 7

8. Issue 4
Published Feb 2011
Implemented
1st Aug 2011

9. Issue 4 - Features Food and non-food packaging
Includes packaging materials
Primary, secondary and tertiary packaging
Focus on:
Hygiene/cleanliness
Quality *NEW*
Issue 4 maintains the focus on food and non-food packaging, and packaging at all levels of the supply chain so primary, secondary and tertiary packaging are all included in the scope.
Items that are manufactured from packaging materials are also included in the scope, items such as disposable cutlery, parchment paper.
Focus on:
Hygiene/cleanliness
Safety
Quality – ensuring that packaging materials are fit for purpose as well as hygienic or cleaning.

10. Categories High Hygiene Risk
“Packaging that comes into direct contact with food products (or other hygiene sensitive products). Primary packaging used for food or other hygiene sensitive products where no absolute barrier is in place.”
Low Hygiene Risk
“Packaging for consumer products and the secondary and tertiary packaging for all uses.”
There are two categories in the Standard and the requirements do vary between the two.
They can be broadly defined as food or non-food – so the requirements reflect the differing hygiene requirements. Broadly speaking, those products that fall into the high hygiene category will be required to be clean and hygienic, whereas cleanliness is the focus for the low hygiene risk category where hygienic conditions are not appropriate, but cleanliness is.

11. Packaging Standard Structure
Senior Management Commitment and Continual Improvement
Hazard and Risk Management System
Product Safety and Quality Management System
Site Standards
Product and Process Control
Personnel
Just talking about the structure of the Standard now and these are the subjects that are covered.
Snr Management Commitment: this covers requirements such as having a quality policy in place, and a management review process.
A hazard and risk management system must be in place, and this is based on HACCP, for those who are familiar with it. The main benefit of this is that HACCP is a very structured approach to hazard and risk management so people who aren’t familiar can follow the steps required and end up with a pretty robust system
Product Safety and Management system – this section covers the requirements surrounding the production process, such as specifications, subcontracting, supplier approval procedures.
Site Standards – pretty self-explanatory, all the requirements surrounding the site and its contents. Must be in a good condition, maintained and cleaned.
Product and process control – these requirements cover the production process itself and bring a new clause in surrounding the management of printed packaging.
Personnel – the last section covers all the requirements to do with facilities for and the management of personnel. Staff facilities and training fall in to this section

12. Issue 4 – new features “Fundamental” clauses *NEW*
Grading system *NEW*
Preparation and planning section *NEW*
Printed packaging material controls
Response to recent issues
Introduction of “Fundamental” clauses, and these are those clauses relating to systems that are crucial to the establishment and operation of an effective packaging manufacturing operation. Clauses such as Senior Management Commitment, Internal Auditing and Process Control are fundamental clauses.
A major non-conformity against a fundamental clause can lead to non-certification.
Introduction of a grading scheme based on number and severity of non-conformities. This has been adopted from the Food Safety and Consumer Products standards.It gives the opportunity to reflect the site’s performance and their progress in the scheme, and those sites who perform particularly badly will not become certificated without a full re-audit.
“Preparation and Planning” section for new users of the Standard with guidance and support on the process.
Product and Process Control section featuring print control for the first time, aimed at ensuring that the quality of the printed material is sufficient.
Response to recent issues: Additional safeguards are now in place to reduce the risk of chemical migration, such as inks, from packaging into food products. This is a response to the several recent incidences of ink taint from the use of recycled materials

13. Certification Process
Obtain Standard
Self Assessment – training course optional
Select Certification Body
On Site Audit
Critical, Major, Minor Non-conformities Identified
Correct non-conformities – 28 days
Certification Decision
A or B C D
12 months months Uncertificated
There is a straightforward approach to certification with the new addition of grading at the end of it.
<Talk through certification stages.> 13 13

14. BRC Directory Private - password protected
The Directory.
There are two aspects to the Directory,
Private is accessible by
Manufacturers
Retailers
Certification bodies
BRC
Public is accessible by all. Can use the search function to locate specific types of packaging manufacturer, e.g. thermoformer in Indonesia, or a paper plate manufacturer in China. We’re planning to develop this area of the directory as well to enhance the functionality and to bring even more benefits to our certificated sites.
Access allocated to certificated sites
Full audit reports available for download
Comprehensive reporting suite
Access to consenting manufacturers details only 14 14

15. BRC Directory Public - accessible to all
Details of all certificated manufacturers - searchable by country, Standard, category, scope keyword
Updated daily ensuring accuracy
Visibility
Only officially recognised resource of certification information
“Shop front”
Retailer use for sourcing suppliers
The Directory.
There are two aspects to the Directory,
Private is accessible by
Manufacturers
Retailers
Certification bodies
BRC
Public is accessible by all. Can use the search function to locate specific types of packaging manufacturer, e.g. thermoformer in Indonesia, or a paper plate manufacturer in China. We’re planning to develop this area of the directory as well to enhance the functionality and to bring even more benefits to our certificated sites. 15 15 15

16. Relevance of the Standards
A recent survey by the BRC shows:
103 – the number of countries with sites
Italy is the largest market outside of UK in EU
91% of sites see value in BRC certification
67% find that certification brings new customers, and use this in marketing
Sites see the Directory as a valuable way to secure new customers

17. Global Standard for Packaging
“The Standard has evolved well, with a better application to packaging materials and not specifically food manufacturers”
Reflecting realistic requirements for the industry
“maintain the user friendliness of the BRC Standard, is practical in use”
“Continuous improvement of the Standard. Maintain the integrity of the Standard.”

18. Future Objectives Standard of Choice
Most appropriate to market requirements
Content
Simple certification process
User friendly – prompt communication and issue resolution
Trusted
Management of Certification Bodies and auditors
GFSI benchmarking
Opening up new global markets committed to the use of GFSI Standards

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