BRC for Agents and Brokers: How to approve external labs?
Good morning everyone,
We are in the process of setting up for an Agents and Brokers audit. I am working on writing up all of the procedures and am having a bit of an issue with the 'suppliers of services-labs'. We have worked with the same labs for a very long time so we are not sure how to go about approving them and what will be enough for approval under the BRC umbrella.
Does anyone know how to approve labs under this standard? Is an ISO cert enough?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Bea, welcome to the IFSQN.
:welcome:
What do the labs do?
Regards,
Simon
Hi Simon,
They are our food safety labs so we send samples to be tested for micros and chem
:smile:
You will need to check that they are UKAS approved, and that on their scope are the tests that they carry out for you.
Also, review meeting with the lab to demonstrate that they are aware of your needs, OOS criteria etc.
If you are supplying Tesco, then check their TLA status.
You took the words right out of my mouth, deleted some, added some and rearranged them into a coherent reply. :smile:
Good points raised above, also consider a questionnaire to assess business continuity, sample traceability etc. If the lab has accredited then check which methods are accredited to make sure that yours are covered as often labs only have some methods that are covered..
Hope that helps
Neil
That's a good point Neil.