PSSI Builds Action Plan to Help Struggling Processing Facility Ace BRC Audit

Challenge

A large food processor that supplies products to grocery chains and other retailers received a negative score of ‘B’ on a BRC (British Retail Consortium) audit at one of its facilities. This posed a serious problem for the processor, including loss of business as they did not meet certain standards required by its large grocery chain partners for purchasing. The audit deductions were related to quality of sanitation, deficiencies observed on the production floors and lack of documentation. This specific facility was cleaned in-house and did not have any sanitation management expertise in the facility. The food processing facility needed urgent support in turning around the facility to prepare for another BRC audit.

Solution

PSSI had a positive history leading successful sanitation and chemical services at several other facilities owned by this food processor. The team recognized the success with the sanitation portion of the BRC audits at those other facilities and asked PSSI to help with the facility that was struggling.

PSSI quickly sent in its F.A.S.T (Field Audit Support Team), including a PSSI F.A.S.T Lead Auditor and a member of the PSSI Chemical Innovations team. The team performed a 3-day in-depth audit of the entire sanitation program that included on-floor observations and detailed documentation reviews. The assessment and findings were compiled and presented to the facility management.

The PSSI F.A.S.T Auditor and Chemical Innovations representative then worked side by side with the customer’s Quality Assurance Manager to identify opportunities they needed to address prior to the upcoming BRC Audit. This included specific sanitation recommendations across the facility related to chemical use, harborage points, maintenance housekeeping, storage, air units, documentation and more.

Result

As a result of the internal audit findings and specific action plan recommendations by the PSSI F.A.S.T group, the customer was able to better prepare its facility from a sanitation perspective and correct their documentation deficiencies prior to its upcoming BRC Audit.

With the corrective actions taken as recommended by PSSI, the customer received and excellent ‘AA’ on its next BRC Audit without any deductions for sanitation. This is this highest possible score that a facility can receive on a BRC Audit.

It was a true team effort that required both sanitation and chemical experts who were not only familiar with the type of processing business, but also the specific BRC audit requirements to help position the facility for future success.