If you’re considering a food safety certification for your business, you might be wondering what your options are for achieving your goals.
There is a lot to consider when deciding on a third party certification for your business. More often that not, companies will start to consider a certification at the request of an existing or potential client or generally when looking to grow the business. This is the starting point when thinking about what standard to go for. Will your existing or potential clients recognise and value the standard and will it work in your favour for winning ongoing contracts.
Once you have decided on the standard you would like to pursue, you now need to plan how you will achieve certification. There is a wealth of information available online that 
can offer advice on how to achieve such goals, but this advice can be generic and difficult to apply to individual businesses. When it comes to food safety certifications such as BRC, you have the option to download the full standard for free. However, there are numerous clauses within the standard that may or may not be applicable to your business. In most cases, senior roles within a small, growing business simply don’t have the time to learn an entire standard sufficiently enough to be able to implement systems accurately. Many businesses choose to remove the hassle and save time by enlisting the advice of a food safety consultant who can streamline the standard to the aspects applicable to your business.
With standards such as BRC, there is a grading system to the certification process. So not only is there pressure to pass the audit, but also to achieve top grades. By enlisting the assistance of a experienced food safety consultants, you are increasing your chances of achieving top grades for certification and gain a competitive edge over similar businesses in your industry.
How can a consultant help?
With all our clients, we start by carrying out a Gap Analysis. One of our qualified consultants would come out to site and assess the systems in place in comparison to the specified standard. This allows us to create a full report on the changes that need to be made in order to achieve certification. From the findings in our report, you can choose to implement those changes yourselves, or employ our assistance to oversee system implementation.
Benefits of using a consultant
• Save time
• Make sure you start out on the right track
• Significantly increased chance of achieving top grades for certification
• Save money – ensure you pass on audit day and prevent repeat audit costs
• Remove the hassle and stress of navigating third party standards
If you’re considering applying your business for a food safety certification and would like some advice from industry experts, submit an enquiry below or contact us directly on 08450 267 745.