Quality standards

Quality Standards.

The first food safety standard was HACCP and was developed in the 1960s to keep food in space longer and safe. Years later, in 1993, the EU decided that HACCP should be embedded in the legislation of all member states. Since then, having a food safety system has been a requirement from legislation.

Quality standards as we know them today have their origins in 1998. In that year, the British Retail Consortium, better known as BRC (now BRCGS), developed a standard to improve food safety. In the following years, more standards followed, such as IFS and FSSC22000, and standards were developed for food-related activities such as transport, storage and trade.

The Standards.

To combat the proliferation of quality standards and ensure their quality, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) was established in May 2000. This foundation sets benchmark requirements that food safety standards must meet. In addition to GFSI, another initiative that adopts quality standards in the Netherlands is Ketenborging.nl. This is an initiative of the Food Trust Taskforce. The Taskforce, in consultation with the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), has drawn up criteria for private quality schemes, which should strengthen private assurance of food safety and especially food integrity. Currently there are 3 standards approved by both GFSI and Ketenborging.nl for the food industry: BRCGS, IFS and FSSC22000.

BRCGS

BRCGS was established in 1998 from a partnership between retailers and retail in Great Britain (British Retail Consortium). In addition to the statutory HACCP requirements, BRCGS also sets requirements in the areas of management, food safety culture, personal hygiene, business design, food defense and food fraud. Some standard requirements are seen as fundamental to food safety assurance and ultimately count more in the final assessment of whether your company is worthy of certification. Précon is happy to help you toward certification.

IFS

IFS (International Featured Standards) was initiated in 2003 by German retailers, later joined by French and Italian retailers and wholesalers. Like BRC, IFS was created to ensure the food safety of private label products from retailers and wholesalers. IFS has many similarities to BRC, but the nuance differences can have a big impact on your organization. Therefore, be well informed about the impact on your company.

FSSC22000

FSSC22000 is a Dutch initiative and when it was introduced, its mission was to develop a globally accepted, independent, non-profit food safety scheme. Compared to BRCGS and IFS, FSSC22000 has relatively the most freedom of choice in implementing the rules. In doing so, it takes the chain idea as its main starting point. The scheme consists of three parts: 1. ISO22000 Food Safety Management Systems - Requirements for an Organization in the Food Chain; 2. One of the technical specifications from the series ISO/TS 22002-1, as a standard for the basic requirements; 3. The so-called 'additional requirements'.

Standards by type of business.

In addition to food producers, companies that provide services related to food also need to meet food safety standards. From the standards BRCGS, IFS and FSSC22000, separate standards have been developed for companies that transport, trade food or produce packaging materials for the food industry. Get advice on the standard applicable to you.

Hallmarks

In addition to quality standards, there are also product-specific labels that can impose certain requirements on your product. A label helps consumers decide on a purchase. For example when it comes to complying with food laws such as Kosher and Halal, or to be sure that products are of a certain origin, such as SKAL (organic), MSC, UTZ and Fairtrade. Précon helps you meet the requirements of these labels.

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Our approach.

In recent years, the number of regulations in standards has only increased, leading to fistfuls of quality manuals. At Précon, we believe it can be done less. By looking critically at the intent of the standard and reflecting this on your organization, we strive for the leanest possible quality system that fits your organization. We therefore do not work with standard templates, but look together with you at what best suits your company. We also look for the perfect match between your company and one of our consultants. The consultant who comes to you not only brings his or her own expertise and knowledge, but can also use the knowledge and experience of many colleagues. We tailor our support completely to your needs. We always aim for you to be able to continue on your own after a certain period of time.