British Retail Consortium (BRC)

In 1998 the British Retail Consortium responded to industry needs and developed the BRC Food Technical Standard. This standard can be used to evaluate manufacturers of retailers' own-brand food products.

In a short amount of time, this standard became invaluable to other organizations across the sector. It was and still is regarded as the benchmark for best practices in the food industry. This and its use outside the UK has seen it evolve into a Global Standard used not just to assess retailer suppliers, but as a framework upon which many companies have based their supplier assessment programs and manufacturing of some branded products.

The majority of UK and Scandinavian retailers will only consider a business with suppliers who have gained certification to the appropriate BRC Global Standard. Following the success and widespread acceptance of the Global Standard – Food, the BRC published the first issue of the Packaging Standard in 2002 (now in its 2nd Edition), followed by Consumer Products Standard in August 2003. Each of these Standards is regularly reviewed and revised after extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders.

ISO-Xperts provides training sessions for technical and quality management, as well as for auditors.