Food Safety Issue 9
First published in 1998, this standard helps food manufacturers focus on a wide range of areas including HACCP, traceability, food fraud prevention, management commitment, and food safety culture. There has been a year-on-year increase in the recognition of the Standard, which has seen it grow to become the largest global food safety programme. A revision of the Standard is underway with the new Issue 9 due to be launched in August 2022.
The revision and evolution of our Standards are at the heart of our work. By reviewing our standards, we can ensure that they incorporate the latest industry trends and operations, practical experiences and best practices from the industry. The revision process enables us to keep up to date with evolving expectations, regulatory requirements and consumer needs. It provides the opportunity to build on the value that our customers and stakeholders gain from the use of our Standards. This value was confirmed in a recent study carried out by the University of Birkbeck.
BRCGS’s Food Safety Standard, which impacts on over US$800bn of product sales, was the first standard to be GFSI benchmarked, as well as introduce food safety culture requirements, define food fraud, and reduce audit burden through additional modules. BRCGS applies a compliance programme to ensure consistent audit outcomes and results that brands can rely on. The Standard is now used by 30,000 sites in 130 countries, and accepted by 70% of the top 10 global retailers, 60% of the top 10 quick-service restaurants, and 50% of the top 25 manufacturers.
The final version of the standard is now being drafted taking into account comments from a public consultation in January 2022, which gathered comments from national and international stakeholders representing food manufacturers, Regulators, retailers, food service companies, brand owners, certification bodies and independent technical experts. The last working group meeting has taken place and the next step in the process is to produce the Standard document and supporting guidance once the final transcript is ready.
The revision process is on track for the standard release on 01 August 2022. We are looking forward to connecting with our sites, partners and stakeholders as we prepare for Issue 9 in the coming months.
Timeline
As with all revisions of the Global Standards, there must be a transition period between consultation, publication of the complete, finalised Standard and full implementation of the Standard. Therefore:
- Issue 9 will be published in August 2022
- Certification against Issue 9 will commence in audits from 1 February 2023.