The British Retail Consortium (BRC), a UK trade organisation that represents the interests of the UK retailers has published the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. It was their aim to establish a standard for due diligence and supplier approval. Today the BRC standard is the minimum standard of hygiene in food manufacturing plants.
The standard has been adopted by food manufacturers throughout the world, especially by those organizations supplying British retailers. Third-party certification to the standard helps manufacturers, brand owners and retailers fulfill their legal obligations and safeguard consumers. The standard covers a comprehensive scope of product safety areas, as well as the legal and due diligence responsibilities of both the supplier and the retailer.

To comply with BRC Global Standard for Food Safety, the food suppliers and manufacturer must adopt three main criteria in their management systems:

• Adoption and implementation of HACCP
• Documented and effective quality management system
• Control of factory environment standards, products, processes and personnel.

BRC certification is not a legal requirement but particularly suitable for companies supplying food products to UK retailers, regardless of the product or country of origin. In most cases certification to this standard is a pre-condition for supplying to UK retailers. It has been adopted by organizations throughout the world.