Name: Understanding the BRCGS Storage and Distribution Implementation
Uploaded: 2025-03-10T12:16:05.892Z
Duration: 1 h 22 min
Description: Understanding the BRCGS Storage and Distribution Implementation

Transcript for "Understanding the BRCGS Storage and Distribution Implementation": Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar. I'm just gonna run through some housekeeping items before handing over to Leon who'll begin. This session is being recorded, and it will be available to rewatch our center colleagues afterwards. Mics are muted for this webinar, so if you have any questions, please pop them in the q and a box, which is on the right hand side of your screen, and we'll go through them at the end. And there will be a short feedback survey at the end of the webinar, so please do take the time to fill this out. We really appreciate it. Thank you for joining, and I'll hand over to Leon and Kim. He'll begin. Okay. Firstly, thank you very much, Chloe, for the, quick introduction. Like Chloe says, it is being recorded. So if you do have anything afterwards and you want to look back, then please feel free to do that. But, let's get started. So firstly, myself and Kim will be doing the presenting. So Kim is our representative, and is food technical manager at BRCGS. And then I'm Leon Ford, and I'm your senior auditor and technical scheme support at NSF. That just means that I audit, but I also support clients, particularly anybody that wants to start their journeys. So the agenda is very much, we're gonna give a little introduction to NSF. We're then gonna overview the storage and distribution industry with, Kim taking over and then going through the standard benefits of certification for your business, and then we'll go through audit protocol and expectations. And then if there are any questions, Chloe will read them out at the end, and go through, them then. So introduction to NSF. So we are an independent not for profit organization, and the whole purpose of us setting up, which I believe now was eighty years ago. We had our eight years last year. And, the whole purpose is to make sure that we are providing a nongovernment public health and safety organization to try and improve planet and people health. So you'll have to excuse me. I'm doing two things. We've got four key values that are then further split down, but the main key values are we do the right thing. We make sure that we're providing an honest and trustworthy, service in everything that we do. We relentlessly pursue excellence. We try and ensure that we are delivering the best service around. So for the purpose of this, we try to deliver thorough robust audits whilst also being firm but fair. We treat people well, so we make sure that, we're always talking to people and treating people with respect and dignity and professionalism. And then we are one NSF, so we try and work together to produce the same goals and, achieve our main goal and objective of protecting, planet and people health. So our global footprint, we do have quite a lot of people throughout the whole globe. You can see the main offices there in blue. So we cover all the way from The Americas all the way through Europe, Asia, Africa, and then into Australasia as well. We actually have team members across the whole globe, and we provide services in a 10 countries from our network of offices and state of the art laboratories. So we do have quite a wide variety of things that we offer. So in the food and beverage department, which is obviously where I sit, we span everything from agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries, all the way through, to fork. So that includes food packaging, retail grocery. We do organics and specialty foods. We obviously cover storage and distribution, which is obviously the main purpose of this conversation. We do also do commercial food equipment, and we do, product certifications within that as well. And then we also do, food manufacturing and processing, and then food service, hospitality, and restaurants. So we have three core divisions within my little team of auditors. We have the ones that focus on agriculture, the ones that focus on retail, and then, obviously, I focus on, BRCGS, GFSI recognized standards, and our own NSF standards covering everything from agents and brokers, storage and distribution, and, everything like that. So if there's any help or support you need, please reach out through one of the many channels that are available to you, and we would always be able to provide support. Right. That's a little bit about NSF. I do feel I ran through that probably a bit quicker than I was going to, but, I didn't wanna take up the important part, which is, handing over to Kim. So I'll just move it on for you, Kim. Right. Now to the important part of BRCGS storage and distribution. Thank you, Leon. Good morning and good afternoon, depending on where you are in the country in the world and among the country. Firstly, I want to thank, Leon and Chloe and NSF for inviting me here to speak to you all about, BRCGS storage and distribution. Today is just really gonna be an overview of the standard. There's no specifics, but at the end, if you have any questions that Leon or myself could answer, please please feel free, and we'll we'll try our best, to to handle them. So the agenda that I'm hoping to cover today is an introduction to the BRCGS. So who are we? The scope for the standard, the storage and distribution standard, specifically the requirements of the standard. We'll have a quick look at the top nonconformities, that we got in a annual an years period last year, and then look at the audit protocol. So what would you expect, if you were to decide to go for certification to to the standard? And then any questions. So why the BRCGS? The BRCGS has been at the forefront of food safety and related standards for the last twenty five years, with 10 core schemes and over 35,000 certificated sites in over a 30 countries. BRCGS was the first to introduce food safety culture, food fraud assessments, and blended and announced audit solutions. Our schemes are accepted and specified by more global brand owners than any other scheme with more than $800,000,000,000 worth of product sales impacted by BRCGS. We deliver our schemes through a global network of 78 delivery partners, including NSF, and supporting professionals with such as the two and a half thousand approved auditors we have globally and 385 approved training partners. So these are just some well, these are the standards that BRCGS does have. They include food safety, starts, packaging, consumer products, ETRS, which is the ethical trade standard, and of course, what we're talking about today, the storage and distribution. More specifically, storage and distribution has 2,735 certificated sites last year across 52 countries with a 10% year on year growth. So it's a growing standard, and, we look forward to seeing that trend continue. We have 420 approved auditors for s and d across the globe, And the top countries are currently UK, USA, and The Netherlands for certified sites. But I do look forward to seeing that change and how it changes in in the future. So the aims and benefits of the standards. The standard provides a framework really, providing safety, quality, and operational criteria required to be put in place for any site or organization to fill its obligations with regards to legal compliance and protection of the consumer, the final consumer. I'm not gonna read through the benefits, but we all know that SND accounts for a large proportion of how we move our food around the world, and it's becoming more and more important as, distribution channels become more integrated globally. At the BRCGS, we have five layers of integrity. So we aim to ensure that our partners who deliver the certification ensure that they are fair, and they implement the standards to our requirements. We also have systems in place like tell b c tell b r c g s, which is a global confidential reporting system so that if any anybody has any issues with any certificated sites, CVs, auditors, they can tell us in a confidential manner and we will investigate. Horizon is a digital analytical tool for site benchmarking and managing performance and this is available to CVs into sites. Certification integrity audits where we send out independent auditors, to review how our CB partners and their auditors are performing. Delivery partner performance, this is where we rate our, CBS and this is available on the directory. We have, on the BRCGS directory website which is freely available to everyone. You can go and see how can go search for CBs and see how we rate them. Currently, NSF is five star. Well done on their last grading. Audit compliance is based on qualifications, training, experience, and exams, and we're constantly looking at, how our auditors perform. So moving on to the scope of the standard and and what the standard itself entails. So the format of the standard, when you get the standard in front of you, maybe it's in digital format or printed, you've got the introduction, which tells you a little bit about what the standard itself covers, the requirements, which are the actual clauses and the expectations that, a site should meet. Part three covers the audit protocol, and this is what to expect for a certification journey. And part five covers the management and governance. So if you do want to know more about the integrity systems and things like that, the man the part five will give you more information about how we run our schemes from from our side, from the BRCGS. And then the appendices provides additional information as required. So the scope of the standard, if you're looking to get certified to storage and distribution, it can be applied to any point of the distribution chain from primary production to retail. Flex the flex scope is flexible and you can go distribution only, transport only, storage only, or the full storage distribution depending on what you require and what your site does. What is within the scope? So the scope of applicable products. So there's definitely food in there, frozen, chilled, and ambiance, packaged food products, or open loose food products such as open veg fruit and vegetables, trays of raw fish and crustacean, carcasses of meat, and any food products and ingredients stored and distributed in bulk, but by road only, not by air, unfortunately. Other applicable products include packaging material and consumer products. If you want to know what packaging materials and consumer products are within scope, you could always go look at those specific standards and see what's in the scope of of the consumer product standard and the packaging material standard. There are two types of exclusion that you can have well, that are applicable to the storage and distribution standard. Those exclusions from the scope which are just not covered in the scope of the standard, which will would not be included even if you wanted them to. So the standard does not cover the transport of live animals with the exception of crustacean, and doesn't cover fuel sold in bulk or refillable containers or motor vehicles. Under no circumstances will certification to the storage and distribution standard cover those products. Alternatively, you can choose to exclude some, processes or products from your certification. At the BRCGS, we do prefer the full operation of the sites to be included in the scope as long as it's part of this the standard scope. But if you do wish to voluntarily exclude sections, there are criteria that need to be followed. So if you want to, exclude a product category, that's allowed, but they have to the excluded product categories must be clearly differentiated from the products categories within scope. For example, you could exclude packaging material, but include food, or consumer products and include food exclude consumer products and include food. They also the excluded products need to be stored in a segregated area need and they need not to be, have any impact of in scope products. Or you can have process exclusions. So you could have both storage and distribution processes, but only choose to include storage within your scope and exclude distribution. All these voluntary distribution, exclusions have repercussions on the use of the BRCGS logo, and I would strongly suggest that you speak to the CB you choose to work with, when deciding whether to exclude anything or not. So moving on to the actual requirements. So what do you have to meet? Again, I can't go through every clause in the standard. There's there's far too many of them. And if you are interested in the standard in the certification, I'd strongly suggest signing up for one of the, site training programs that cover, the standard. Just give you a little bit more insight into each of these. So there are in total 18 secondtions to the to the standard, but the first nine are compulsory. Now when I say compulsory, it will depend on your on your operations. But if you choose to include them in your scope, these are what you'd have to do. So it's senior management commitment, hazard and risk analysis, the management system, the product safety and quality management system, requirements around your site and building standards, operate vehicle operating standards, how we manage our facilities, good operating practices, some requirements around personnel, and then there's a specific section which handles a higher risk category of handling open food products. Quickly gonna go through these sections. Just to give you an a feel for what they cover. Again, no details. Unfortunately, we don't have the time. So under section one, we're looking at senior management commitment. And this is an important section because a good quality management system, food safety quality management system can only be implemented successfully if you have the commitment of your senior management. The standard requires a quality policy statement to be in place, that you have a plan for your continuing improvement of product safety and quality culture, that the resources are available to implement the standard and its requirements. Objectives need to be set for product safety, quality, and legality. There should be a confidential reporting system in place. The management needs to review the system annually at least. And the organizational structure, responsibility, and management authority must be clearly laid out and available and there are requirements to that. In section two, we look at the hazard and risk analysis. So this is your HARA or your HACCP or how what you have done to cover these requirements. The bedrock of any HARA or HACCP system is prerequisite programs, and much of the rest of the standard deals with some of these prerequisite programs. But it's up to each site to decide, to evaluate what which prerequisites they need and and what suits their requirements. So you've got your prerequisite programs, having a multidisciplinary team with a team leader assigned for your HARA or your HACCP. The multidisciplinary team just make sure that you are casting your net wide in terms of identifying potential hazards which may affect, your final consumer or your customer. You want to have a HARA or HACCP study with a scope that covers everything that you wanted to. So from the beginning to the end and everything in between as it relates to your site specifically. A product flow diagram, which outlines, again, start to finish and everything in between. And there are specific requirements of what the BRCGs require or expect to see in your flow diagram and those are outlined in the standard. Then at each of those steps, what are the what are the hazards, analyzing them, and risk assessing those hazards, And identifying then the critical control points, which may come out of that hazard analysis and risk assessment. Not every site will have critical control points, but you need to, if you do have them, the BRCGS has requirements around those. And then reviewing it. This is a live system and a live document. Any changes, which change anything significantly in your process or your products should trigger a review. Otherwise, there is an expectation of an annual review of your HARO or HACCP system. So section three is covers the product safety quality and management quality management system. There are quite a number of sections within subsections within this section. You have the general general document requirements, which is things like your document control and record keeping and just having procedures in place, generally having the product safety and quality management manual and system. Internal audits, which is one of my favorite sections. I was a technical manager on in food various food factories for nearly twenty years before joining a CB and coming to BRCGS, and it is one of the most powerful tools in any technical managers, arsenal to make sure that, you are meeting the requirements of your customers, of your site, of your the legal requirements of where you operate and where you're going to sell. So, yes, it's my it's one of my personal soapbox moments internal audits, but, please, there are requirements that the RCGS has around these. And if you get them right, they are one of the most important tools in in a technical manager's box. We're going into corrective and offensive actions. What is the expectations around how these are conducted within within a site and records that need to be maintained. This includes root cause analysis. Customer contractual arrangements, how you how you interact with your customers. Purchasing, so this is the, approval of service supplies and also subcontractors and the requirements around those. This also includes product fraud risk assessment. The s and d standard is slightly unique in product fraud risk. Most of our standards look backwards. So when you're buying from your raw material supplies, you're expected to risk assess all your raw material supplies to ensure that you do not buy in fraudulent product. With s and d, where most of the product handled is not within the control of the site itself, they do not have ownership of the product, the storage and distribution standard looks outwards. It looks forwards. So and it expects sites to evaluate their customers and see if there is a risk of their customers expecting site to handle and store and distribute fraudulent products on their behalf. So that's just something to keep in mind when you're looking at this from as an s and d, site, a storage and distribution site who handles third party product is you're not looking at the raw material supplier or your the supplier because that's not within your control, but you are looking at your customers and saying, is this customer going to get me involved in fraudulent behavior? And it's really important to to look at it in in that way, and it is a requirement of the standard. Other things that section three cover include traceability, the management of product withdrawal and product recall, how we handle incident management and business continuity. So that's things that, affect your business other than just a recall. So this could be a cyber attack, which shuts down all your IT systems. It could be fire, which I hope never happens, flooding, and any other incident which affects how you run your site and may affect the the safety and integrity of the product, being stored or handled. The last two are control of nonconforming products, damages, and returns. So how a site is expected to and what records the site is expected to keep for these. And complaints handling. How do you how do you communicate with your customers on complaints and how do you deal with those? So the first three sections are generally applicable to all sites that come into certification. Section four, five, and six tend to be more depending on what you do, whether you're doing storage or distribution or both. So section four deals with site and building standards. So it looks at where your site is, the location. Is there anything around it that's gonna affect it? The actual upkeep of the grounds on the site itself. How are you keeping your site secure and to maintain product defense so that nothing's gonna happen to that product? That's both from x and this is generally speaking from external, but also from internal, risk factors. What's the layout's production flow and segregation within the site? Are we cross contaminating things? Are we potentially causing issues by the way we've laid out our site? Then looking also looking at fabricate fabrication and staff facilities. So how staff facilities interact with the storage, and distribution processes. Section five, so if you are not doing distribution, section five becomes, and here's the important word, mostly not applicable. There are sections in section five which are applicable to anybody who's unloading or loading vehicles. So please don't assume that just because you are not doing distribution, that section five is completely not applicable. Read through especially section 5.1 vehicle standards and just make sure that you know what your distributors should be achieving with the rest of them with the rest of the requirements. So vehicle operating standards covers the actual standards of the vehicles. The load security and vehicle security when out on the road and also when parked up, vehicle managements, and that includes maintenance and various other things, and then vehicle temperature controls for chilled and frozen distribution. Section six, the facility management. So this is looking at the actual nitty gritty of the facility itself. The equipment that's used, the maintenance of the equipment. If you use any, measuring or control monitoring devices for, chilled or frozen storage or for controlled atmosphere storage, those need to be calibrated. Looking at the housekeeping and the hygiene of the site, how you handle waste. And also then the section for pest management comes under facility management. And pest management is actually quite a large section of the, of this section a subsection of this section. And it's just making sure that you you meet those requirements. The BRCGS has just published a, best practice guideline on pest management, which I read a couple of weeks back before its, final publication. And even as somebody who's been in the industry, for a long time now, rereading pest a pest management guideline like that, I always find is is very useful. It sort of reminds you of things that you might have forgotten. So section seven is good operating practices, and this is just the the processes you have to make sure everything is is ticking along nicely. So the receipts of goods, the checks that you have in place there, how products are handled to keep them safe and to keep them to maintain their integrity. Environmental control, this is temperature controls, so frozen and chilled storage units, but also, controlled environments, units and things such as humidity, all those environmental controls, how what the expectations of of those are. You have, a section deal subsection dealing with the physical and chemical product product contamination and and what we expect sites to do to prevent cross contamination. We deal with stock rotation, product release, and also the management of allergens. Management of allergens is relatively new into the SND standard in its history, but I think it's really important that sites are aware what they're handling, and what to do if there are any spillages or if they're handling open allergens that becomes even more important. Two sections on one slide here. We've got section eight, which is personnel. And this is just looking at training competency and the records that are expected and what what is the expectation of having, personnel trained and ongoing competency, and then also just the personal hygiene requirements. Section nine is that specific section for the higher risk open food products, where handled. And this sort of deals with how we integrate these into the hazard and risk analysis, staff facility, additional requirements if needed, fabrication, maintenance, housekeeping and hygiene, and protective clothing. So that was the sort of required section, shall we say, the compulsory section if you were doing it. These are the voluntary modules. So you may or may not want to include these, in in your certification. And again, speak to your certification body before making any decisions. They might be able to give you some very useful insight. Sorry. So we've got section 10, which is wholesale requirements. Section 11, cross docking requirements. This is cross docking where you are cross docking at sites other than your own. If your cross docking is at your own site and you cross dock for somebody else, but it's just within your own site and doesn't involve anybody else, then that is covered within the requirements of the standard, the core one to nine. This section 11 is where you are using third party sites even within your same group, so second or third party site within, to do your cross docking for you. Section 12 is ecommerce requirements. Now section 13 is, an overarching section. So if you do 14 to 19, you will have to do contractual arrangements and this is just deals with the contracts between you and the customer requesting the service. So again, if you are doing any of the 14 to 19, you will have to do 13. Just keep that in mind. So 14 is product inspection. 15 is contract packing, which includes repacking and assembly packing. This is not repacking of open product unless it's open fruit and veg that's already open. But this is does not include the repacking where you would open a bulk container of oil and repack it into small containers. Quantity control inspection at sixteen. At seventeen, contract chilling, freezing, tempering, defrosting, and high pressure process operations. 18 is the contract cleaning of baskets, roll cages, and distributions, and here the distinction needs to be made. It is, tertiary packaging or secondary packaging. It's not primary packaging. This is not the cleaning of, for example, milk bottles or any any containers which will be in direct contact with food. This is secondary, tertiary packaging. And section 19, apologies. Oh, yeah. I said there's 18. There's actually 19, is the waste recovery and recycling section. Every now and then, things happen where we have to issue updates or clarifications on a standard. These are called position statements in the BRCGS. Position statements are freely available in the BRCGS websites. And if you become a certified site, it's available on participate, but it is freely available to anybody. And these updates or clarify requirements of the standard and become auditable doc and they are auditable documents. They're not always about the requirements. Sometimes they can be about the audit protocol, but in both cases, they're important things for sites to to make to become aware of to implement the standard and their certification. So I please urge you, if you do become certified, make a make it a a habit to check for new position statements or you could sign up for the BRCGS newsletter, which would, make these available to you, at least, sort of, tell people that these are happening. So now we've gone through the requirements. In the in a period, in a year period last year, we sort of did the the analysis of the nonconformities, and we sort of broke them down into nonconformities from announced audits and nonconformities from unannounced audits. There weren't a huge amount of difference, but these were the top ones. So for unannounced audits, the top one was buildings pest proofing. So that's just making sure that your building is in the best possible condition to not let pests in. That's rats flying insects and anything that you don't want in your site, which includes cats, dogs, and everything else in between. Six point four point one, premises clean and hygiene. This is a bit of a catch all, clause. It's very broad, but it does show the importance of keeping your site in a clean and hygienic condition. And these, as you can see, four point four point nine and four six point four point one are the top two in announced and unannounced audits. They just jiggle around their position a bit. Four point four point one, number three in both. And again, going comes back to fabrication. So are the walls, floors, ceilings, pipe works maintained in a good condition? So I think going into an audit, making sure that your premises is clean and in a good condition is vitally important. It's vitally important anyway, but going into an audit especially. So three two one, three point two point one is the scheduling of internal audits. Again, as I said, this is one of my fave my favorite sections because I think it's so important and useful if done properly. Again, in both announced and unannounced audits on the top, and this is following the requirements of the standard in three point two point one. And it goes and it it explains the scope of what we expect you to be doing internal audits on, and also the how often we expect an internal audit to be done. So have a please have a look at that. Make sure that your internal audit program complies to the requirements of three point two point one. And then the one change is that in announced audits July was one of the top five. This is the storage of chemicals. A chemical should be stored in secure locations and not left lying around to potentially contaminate product. And an unannounced audit seven point four point one was the pre procedures for handling glasses. Things like having a, a glass register and making sure that you check those glass and brittle plastics on a frequency based on risk, at a frequency based on risk, and those are recorded. And then you have procedures in case something happens. So if there is a breakage, what are people supposed to do? So that's it for the requirements and a very brief overview of the non top nonconformities, we've had recently in in the storage and distribution standard. I'm gonna go on to the audit protocol. I think at this point, if Leon wants to jump in at any point, I'll try and keep an ear out for him. Yeah. I'm I'm here because I think starting to dev out, so it might be nice for for you to say a few words and give me a break. I'm not used to doing this. But I think in the audit protocol, when you decide, okay, this is something we want to do. We've decided we want to go for certification. Great. Thank you. We welcome you with open arms. Go and learn. Learn about the standard. The BRCGS storage and distribution issue issue four is available in four languages. It's freely available in the BRCGs, bookstore. You just there's a drop down menu and format, and there's the free PDF version over there. And you can get it in English, Chinese, Italian, and Spanish. There are other resources available on brcgs.com. There's a self assessment checklist, which takes the the standard and puts it in a checklist format so that you can go around and just make sure you have everything in place that you have to have in place. The interpretation is is guideline is available. Unfortunately, this is at a cost for sites who are not certified yet, but freely available to those who are. We have relevant position statements. There is a frequently asked questions document, a guide for certification. So probably this, but but in a PDF version, and an order duration calculator. So you can be, speaking to your CB on sort of you're both speaking off the same hymn sheet, shall we say. You know, you both have the same available information to you. When you're preparing for an audit, some things to consider is whether you want to have it announced or unannounced. And if you're going to have any of those additional modules, self assess compliance to the standard. We have the, the gap analysis worksheet that I mentioned earlier. Go through it, the checklist. Go through it and and see where where your gaps are and what you need to do to to properly, put things in place. If you wanna go one step further, you can use that gap analysis proper round of internal audits where you're actually, looking at conformance and non conformance and put proper records in place, and those can just those are just gonna build your records for your for your upcoming, set of certification audit. Select a certification body. You might wanna do this as your first step. There is no right order in which to do those. Sometimes it's best to to have somebody to speak to from the get go, and they can guide you through it, and define the scope of the audit. And this you really do actually wanna do in in conjunction with your CV to make sure that that they can that firstly, that it is within the scope of the standard, and secondly, that they can actually cover what you need them to cover. Yep. So what I was just gonna pick up here, Kim, if we just go back here. So what I would say to and just give you a bit of a rest as well. Any anybody that's looking at doing this standard, definitely get access to the, actual standard itself prior to even having any conversations because there's a lot in the version four of the s and d standard that that needs prep. All the other documents aren't available to you prior to, being certified, but they would be available to you afterwards. It's not something we can send as a c b. I know that's been one question within the questions, so I just want to cover that off while we're going through them. Also, when you are interested in starting, definitely speak to your certification body because sometimes scopes can be difficult to define when you're not familiar with the standard. We're here to help. We've all got you know, every CB will have people to help. But in in our case at NSF, if you are UK based or even EMEA region based, the questions will probably come through via me. It wouldn't be me you'd go to initially, but it'd be me that comes back to you to help you. We are here to help. At the end of the day, we are here to deliver you a thorough robust audit whilst also giving you the service you need. So we would talk through what it is that's taking place on your site to establish what we need to, get the scope like. Now, obviously, if the order finds something different, that can change. So it's important to get it right before the audit because if the auditor uncovers something that isn't covered within the scope, it could, one, stop the audit because there's not long enough to complete it, or it could delay the finish of the audit. I think we have seven days we can finish an audit from the start. However, we'd like to avoid that where possible because it just makes it complicated. So it's always best to have that conversation prior to the audit, not during, not afterwards. It's always best to have it prior to the audit. Okay. I'll hand back now, Kim. I think the key thing is an open, honest relationship with your CV is the most beneficial to everybody. Definitely. So just a little bit on the sort of audit options because it's there's announced and unannounced, which is great. It's easy, but it's slightly more complicated as with everything in life, it's never that simple. So, BRCGS storage and distribution is a GFSI benchmarked standard. And as such, we are, we have to have a one in three mandatory unannounced audit. So that means anybody who voluntarily goes on the announced audit scheme has to do an unannounced every three years. So that's something to take into consideration when you're going into it. That is not something that the CB can decide. It's not something that the BRCGS can decide. As a member of the GFSI and benchmarking to to that standard, this is something that is mandatory for all of us to make sure it happens. It is the site's responsibility to make sure that they have their an unannounced audit in time. Leo and his team Leon and his team will be making sure that they get in contact with you and do everything they can to make sure that happens. It's not sort of a hands off thing, but it is still the site's responsibility to to make sure that that happens. You've got the full announce where an audit comes on-site and they do the full audit in one in one go. And that's anything from a day, day and a half, two days, depending on on the calculated duration of the audit. The other option is a blended two part audit where you break the audit up into sort of the on-site audit and then the, the paperwork audit, which then can be done remotely, the paperwork section of the on-site section. For unannounced, you have similar similar things. So you have your fully unannounced where your audit will, come on to site within a four month period, unannounced, and conduct the audit all in one sitting, so to speak, over the the duration of of the audit. So one to one and a half, two days, three days. You have the option two for the unannounced, the same thing where the unannounced section is the site audit, which you will not sorry. I have things popping up on my screen. The option two is where you have the unannounced section of the site and vehicles being done, and then the documentation is announced slightly after, at a at a date agreed by the site and the, the CB afterwards. Most sites prefer, from our records, prefer just to get it done. Not many ups not much uptake on the blended two parts because it require it essentially ends up being two top two two audits, one covering one bits and and the other covering other bits. So but it's up to you. Speak to your CV what you what what works best for you and what the CV can accommodate. Audit planning, make sure the information and appropriate personnel are available for the audit. So you've got your dates, you're going for it. Provide information to the certification for audit preparation. Each CB will have a slightly different list of what they require, but this is information that they give to the auditors so the auditor is as prepared as they can be when they walk onto your site. It's still gonna be new to them. They're still gonna have to learn a lot about your site, but it gives them just gives them a sense of what the site's about. Define the audit date and the parameter parameters if unannounced, and agree audit duration based on the audit duration calculator. Anything you wanna add on to planning, Liam? Because it's a very definitely a CB related thing. Yeah. So what I would say with that is, again, it's that be open and honest because, the more information you provide, the better that can be. Do make sure you are prepared. The the top part there with the personnel are available. Unfortunately, when it is unannounced, whether it be one in three or voluntarily, you will require somebody there. But that initial person could just be the person that takes the order around the warehouse whilst other people are coming in. But as you'll know from, I wanna say section 1.2 of the standard, it is required that you do have deputies. So so deputies are required. Now you don't need, obviously, 15 deputies, but if you're unannounced, make sure you have at least one of them deputies on-site available in the case of an auditor because that also will arrive, and they will be required to get down on the shop floor within that thirty minute window. And there is no tolerance for, well, Joe isn't here yet. That doesn't matter, unfortunately, for that. Also, if you're not operating, I. E. You will have a plan shut down or more importantly, you don't start till ten in the morning, again, tell the CB. Because if you don't tell us, then, unfortunately, we'll turn up, and, it it could just create a problem further down the line. So make sure you're open and honest. Give us as much information as possible, and there is no such thing as too much information. I'd rather have information we don't need so that the planning can go properly than need something that we haven't got that then means that it affects your audit. I think those are famous last words, Leon. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Fail to plan, plan to fail. So at the on-site order, again, I'm gonna hand over to to Leon after this because as a con current auditor, he's probably got the most, recent and pertinent background. But you're gonna have an opening meeting, lays out the the structure of the day. So the bits in gray are sort of set, but the bits in orange are up to the site and the auditor to agree before and during the audit. Things change. I think most auditors will come into an audit knowing that, the life of a site is not set. There is there things change, things happen, orders come in late, and they will try and accommodate the site as much as possible. So you start with the opening meeting and then in no particular order, you will be well, unless you're an unannounced. If you're unannounced, you're directly into the factory or storage areas to do the inspection of the site and storage facilities. That doesn't mean that it's the only time the auditor may go down to the shop floor. It might be that they do an initial overview, go down, make sure that they're in there in in half an hour, do an hour or so, and then go back at a later time to get to speak to the people they didn't speak to the first time. But just I think just I'm just trying to make you aware that there is no right answer. There is no right agenda for for an audit as long as everything is covered within the thing and is agreed between the auditor and the the auditee, the site at the time. You have document review. There will be a traceability exercise with a check of associated records and documentation conducted during during the audit, and then where applicable, you have a vehicle audit. So if you've got section five and these vehicles available to to do that. At the end of the audit, the audit is going to just want to have a bit of a breathing space where he they can, look at the findings and and where he's at or she's at. And then they'll have a closing meeting where they will discuss all the findings from the the audit. It's should not be a surprise. At a closing meeting, nothing should be a surprise. It should be a catch up. You shouldn't have anything sprung on you at the end of a meeting. And I think if you do have anything sprung at you at the end of a meeting, speak to your CV after after the audit. But you shouldn't come into a closing meeting, you should come into a closing meeting. All the closing meetings, I all the good ones I went into as a technical manager, I knew exactly what nonconformities I was going to get by the time I sat down. It was more of an overview and a close-up for all those people who weren't necessarily part of the, the audit itself. Leon? Yeah. So what I would say is if it is unannounced, the opening meeting may not always take place at the start of the audit. I will often, often, particularly with food more than s and d, but I will often have the opening meeting after the initial tour because getting people together takes too long sometimes. That thirty minutes isn't thirty minutes sat down in a boardroom. It's thirty minutes onto the shop floor. The inspection, I definitely break up. I find that if you have eight hours worth of paperwork, it becomes a long, laborious day, and I will use that to to break up or or to walk off lunch, particularly with vehicles where vehicles are out when you start initially on the audit, but they come back later on in the day. I'll normally pick up the vehicles when they arrive back because, obviously, they're already out. They're normally out at six in the morning in The UK, and then they don't get back till sort of two in the afternoon. So that's when I'll start to pick up them. But, again, each site is different, and that's the one thing with s and d. Every site is completely different. It's the least similar standard out of all the standards out there for for planning and audit. Obviously, traceability exercise will will pick something that is relevant and then check that when it's complete. Normally, with storage and distribution sites, they don't take as long as as a food site does, so therefore, they're normally quite straightforward. And, of course, the the findings, like like Kim said, you should be aware of everything the author raises. You may not know exactly which comments as they've gone through they're gonna raise or not raise. However, there should be no surprises. So I'm always very keen to say, well, you know, that that's not quite right and x, y, and zed, and we'll look at all the evidence. And then it just you know, in the closing meeting, you'll be aware of everything that I've I've gone through as that. There are some times where there's extra evidence that does get seen, or more importantly, where, the author goes away, checks the standard, particularly as a predominantly food auditor. I'll check the standard and realize that, nope, that is food, not s and d, so therefore it won't get raised. So, again, it shouldn't be a surprise. You should be aware of everything that does get raised, you should already be aware of. There should be no surprises like Kim said. I think the other thing to note is your auditors are people too, and generally very experienced people within the industry that they're auditing. And a lot of them have been in in the position of technical managers and quality managers. So they've been there, they've done that. So, for the most part, I can't speak for 100% of auditors. I think that would be remiss of me. But for the most part, auditors are very much like Leon. They they good people who are willing to talk. So if you if you have a question, ask, and they will they'll do their best to either answer or maybe say, well, actually, I need more information before I can answer. Most auditors are pragmatic people with their heads, you know, level heads, and and talk to them. They they're not scary. Sometimes they may seem scary, but if you talk to them and and and and I think it it comes back to that open and honest relationship. If you're not hiding stuff and there's nothing to hide, that's going to be a much more fluid relationship, you know. If the if the auditor wants to see something, show it. Unless you feel that it is really not pertinent to the audit. Okay. So nonconformities and corrective actions. I think anybody who's sat in a CB loves this section of the, of the talk. So you get as a S and D site, as any certification site, to any of the standards and certified to any of the standards, you get twenty eight days to close out your corrective actions. So you get your nonconformities at the closing meeting, and then you've got twenty eight days from that point. So from the closing meeting, not the first day of the audit, from the closing meeting to close after your corrective actions. If you are in it if you are assigned to who's coming to SND for the first time, you get ninety days from for an from the initial for the initial audit. I would always encourage sites to do the corrective actions as soon as possible and forward them to the c b to give the c b time to review and, get back to the site if additional information is needed, but you have twenty eight days. The certification body then gets fourteen days to review the evidence of the corrective action and the what root cause has been determined by the site and the preventative action put in place based on the root cause. We'll get to that in a bit. If corrective actions are deemed satisfactory, and the CV looks at them and says, yes, that's the nonconformity and that corrective action closes out the nonconformity and there's the evidence of the corrective action, the root cause looks like a root cause. It looks like they've put some thought into that and it actually gets down to what may be the, roots of the problem. And that preventive action looks like it will address the root cause. So this is the problem, why it happened, and this is what we're going to do to prevent it happening again. They will then sign off and you will get your certificate and everybody is happy. However, this is a section that a lot of sites don't get right. So I'm just going to put a little bit more time into it, and I'm gonna give Leon time as probably somebody who signs off nonconformities on a regular basis to have his say to. So the corrective action or correction, depending on which stand you're speaking about, is that immediate action you do to fix the problem. The door is broken. I fixed the door. That's the immediate action. And here's the pictures to show that I fixed the door, preferably pictures of the broken door and then pictures of the fixed door so that it is objective evidence that the action has been completed on the same door. So objective evidence, there is various things that you can use. Pictures is one of them. And if you do do pictures, I do ask that you do take before and after. The best way to do it is to do it while during the audit. If you're following your auditor around and they say, oh, that doesn't look right. That doesn't you know, you haven't pest proofed that. Probably take a picture of it. And then you both you know, it's there and then and then you can take your your after picture or your fixed picture later. These need to be done within twenty eight days. The root cause analysis is now why was that door broken? Why wasn't it picked up in your GMP audits or the internal audits? Why hasn't somebody just told somebody else that, you know, somebody who can fix it that that the door is broken? Why did it happen? So you investigate it and there's various methods. There is no set way to do it. It's what works for you as a site. Five whys are nice and simple. I think very tricky bit of the five whys is it doesn't actually have to be five. It could be three, it could be eight. But what they found when developing it was five was sort of the average. So the five whys just keeps on asking as why why why. The fishbone diagram, cause and effect, and Pareto's principle are slightly more complicated, but some sites use them extremely effectively to to find their root cause analysis. And there is plenty of, information out there, to tell you the the specifics of each of those. Again, you don't even have to use any of these, but the investigation should dig down into why something happened and how can you prevent it happening again. The preventative action is addressing the root cause. So how and again, it's as you can see from the language I use, the preventative action is very much based on the root cause. We're trying to stop it happening again so that you won't get that nonconformity again, that you won't ever have an issue with that specific nonconformity again. It could be one thing that you need to do. It could be a raft of things you need to do, depending on the nature of the nonconformity. But it's up to you to decide how are we gonna make sure it doesn't happen again. These are generally longer term. There may be evidence available to the CB. And if you do have evidence, by all means, send it to the CB. It gives them a a very good overview of of what's happening on the site. But it may be that because it's a longer term, you may not have evidence, and that's okay. Yeah. And so that's nonconformances. Correction, the immediate, the root cause, the why, and the preventative action, how we're gonna stop it happening again. Liam? Yeah. I think this slide is really good, actually. It's probably one of the better slides I've seen for this. I think the key thing to remember is all corrections do need evidence attaching. You can't, get away with that and corrections and preventative actions need to be different because the correction is how you fixed it. Your preventive is how you can prevent it from, recurring again. For root cause, I think with s and d, generally speaking, the five whys is the most appropriate method to use. Generally speaking, they're they're fairly straightforward. As soon as you get into the other three, particularly fishbone, I've used a lot, it can often present several different root causes and therefore multiple actions coming from that, which sometimes is appropriate. But for for things like we stored boxes on the floor, you probably don't need a fishbone for that. You probably just need a five wires. So, yeah, keep keep them independent. Definitely try and complete them before the twenty eight days because most CBs, certainly our one in The UK does operate where the auditor signs them off. So, obviously, if the auditor's auditing, your time doesn't stop because they're not available. So we try and allow two days for the auditor to sign them off before it goes through the final process. And if the correction hasn't got evidence, and more importantly, the correction is just repeated for preventative, unfortunately, we will be coming back for more information. So it's better to get it done right first time than to to do it multiple times. Yes. So post audit. We're nearly the end. I know we're running slightly over, but we are very nearly at the end. So you've had your audit. You got your certificate. Well done. Really well done. It's it's it's a journey, and it it takes a lot of time and effort. And I think it's no matter what you end up with, if you get certified, I think it's it's a well done situation. Now you have to look at the ongoing maintenance of the standard and continual improvement. This is where things like your internal audits become really helpful. Continual improvement is that management commitment to do better. It does come from the top. Get your login details for the BRCDS directory and share your audit reports with your customers so that you're not having to send out your paper copies in PDF format everywhere or posting them. You can share your your certification with, people directly from the directory. You're welcome to use the BRCGS logos preferably well, not preferably. You may not use them on product, but as a storage and distribution center, you would generally have the opportunity to put them on product. But I have seen products. I've recently purchased something with the BRCGS logo on which I've fed back to our integrity team. But as an SMD, you you can put it on your lorries, on your stationery, on your email footers. Just be aware that if we change the logo, which I we are not looking to do anytime soon, just not looking to do anytime soon, that would require the logo change. And I think we still have some people with logos from when the BRC was the BRC, which was very many years ago. Ongoing communication with your certification body. Just make sure that, you're speaking to each other. It is the site's responsibility to fix their audits. The CBs will have your dates. They will get in contact with you for the most part, but things happen. We're all human, and sometimes those might slip through the net. It is the site's responsibility. You cannot turn around and say my CV didn't contact me. That is not a good enough explanation. If your audit is due, it is up to you to make sure it happens. Otherwise, you will be getting a nonconformity. I will say again that most CBs will be following up with you way before your order just to make sure they get you booked in because availability of auditors is always at a premium and make sure that it happens. So the CVs will be doing everything within their power to get it right. However, it is the site's responsibility to make sure it gets done. And then schedule reorder dates, and get that reorder date due in. The sooner, the better, I think, for most with, as as an ex CB person, the sooner you get your next audit booked, the better for everybody concerned. I don't think I said anything wrong there. Did I, Leon? I don't think so. No. I think that that was a good summary. So, yes, just continuing the re making sure that you keep up to date with any position statements and any requirements of standard and making sure you get your audit done. I think there's one more slide and this is just so so if you are do become a certified site, you then get access to, the serve BRCGS service packages as part of the certification fee. And this is BRCGS professional, participates, the food safety culture and excellence, module, and then a few other things that I actually can't read at this point, but horizon, access to the directory to share your your certificate. As a certified site, this all becomes part of the package. I think that's it, and I just want to say thank you very much for having me, to NSF, and to everybody else for listening to me. If you have any questions, I'm sure Leon will more than happily answer your answer them. Otherwise, you can get in touch with our technical team. As with Leon, it might not go to me directly, but I might be probably one of the people answering them anyway, at the end of the line and getting back to you. So and that's our the the inquiries email. So NSF, us, or any of your chosen certification bodies. Thank you for your time. Any questions? Before we finish, we do have sorry. We do have Oh, no. Carry on. Yeah. So so this basically, is just a little bit about what else NSF can offer you. So we do offer a range of trainings. Obviously, we've got the Europe and the Africa email addresses, so please feel free to, use them if you need to. We are offering a 10%, discount code until 05/10/2025. Just do Chloe's little bit there for for the, marketing side. So so do have a look. There is quite a lot available, and that can be either on this standard or or other things as well. We do do quite a varied range of training. Now there were a couple of questions which we will also pick up. So the first question, I think they were both from the same person. Go on, Chloe. You read you read the question. I think they'll be for you, Kim, more than me anyway. That's fine. So we had the first question was, when is the standard due to be updated? There is no immediate work on updating the standard now. The GFSI benchmark has just reached the new GFSI benchmark just recently come out, and we're working on comparing the standards. In the short term, I think there might be some position statements come out to to cover those GFSI requirements. We have not started working on a full review of the standard. If we do start, it's going to be twelve to eighteen months before anything gets done, and that's a conservative estimate. So not in the foreseeable future, I think is the the answer to that question. But watch out for the position statements. There might be things in position statements coming out of the GFSI benchmark. Thank you, Kim. And then another question from Dixie is, if you cross dock your own stock, no third party, do you need to do section 11? You don't need to do section 11 at all if unless you want to. But cross docking the module, it's not so much who owns the product, it's where the cross docking happens. So if you're doing it on your site at the primary certified site, then no. Then the cross docking module is not applicable to you. It's when you cross dock on your side, but then also cross dock at at least one other site or two or three or up to 20, and there's a whole section in at the back of the standard that deals with cross docking and the number of of cross docking sites and how you ordered those. So, but no. If you're only cross docking on your site, that is part of your your sort of primary certification. If you're cross docking at another site, then the cross docking module becomes applicable. I hope that answers your question. Yeah. I'll just add on that. I think there's quite a lot at the back of the standard covering Yes. Multi sites, satellite sites, and cross docking. It's not one that very much is just a straightforward answer. It's one of speak to your CB, explain exactly what you do, what addresses are involved, what operations are ongoing, and then we can determine that for you. I don't think, anybody would expect you to necessarily come up with the right answer, especially if it's your first s and d audit. No. Very it it's it's probably the most complicated setup that s and d can have is is cross docking. So definitely read the section so that you know what you're speaking to your c b about before you speak to your c b or at least have some inkling and, you know, what questions to ask. But then, yes, definitely speak to your CB because each each one will be unique. Yeah. Thank you. And then one more from Patricia. Great presentation. Thank you, Kim. Do you plan on doing something similar for food safety? So, we actually have already done a food audit, webinar. So I will share the link in the post, email that I will send out, but, we can certainly look at potentially doing another one in the future. And then I think that was all the questions. I know we had a few questions asking if it's was being recorded. It is being recorded. And so if there's anything that you'd like to look over again, feel free to watch the recording, just in case you've missed anything. And then thank you everyone for joining. Thank you to Kim and Leon for taking the time to join us today. I hope it's been useful, and I'm just going to launch a survey so you can take the time to fill it out. That'd be really helpful for us. Thank you so much, everyone. Hope you have a good rest of the week. Thank you. Bye. Bye.