Baker Labels’ flexible packaging division, BakPac, has received BRC Global Standard (BRCGS) for Packaging Materials certification.
BRCGS is a standard for ensuring that the producers of food and related materials for sale to the public are doing so in a safe and legal way. Major retailers in the UK started the BRC organisation and made its suppliers comply with it to reduce the risk of selling food that would make its customers ill. The standard is based on having good manufacturing practices, including hygiene standards and policies. It is used worldwide by manufacturers producing packaging materials for any product that ends up in the hands of consumers and is a requirement from most major brands in the FMCG sector.
The BakPac facility located in Brentwood, UK was awarded an A Grade following a thorough and detailed audit in November and received the official certification on 12 January, 2021.
As a trade supplier of digitally printed flexible packaging, this accreditation gives assurance to the company’s trade customers that the packaging they are supplying to their customers is produced in a facility with the highest hygiene standards, in addition to the highest production standards they already receive.
BakPac general manager Phil Smith said, ‘We are producing packaging in BakPac that will be in contact with the food that people eat and without BRC we will not be able to gain certain types of business, so receiving accreditation was a critical part of our business plan.
‘Since launching we have been working with the required standards but achieving certification takes time as there are quite rightly a number of detailed process to go through. We were assessed on all aspects of the business, from the quality of the facility and equipment to provision of staff training and their protective clothing and personal hygiene.’
Mr Smith noted that the system is risk-based using tools such as the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) study, which was first developed by NASA to ensure the food being sent into space with astronauts was not going to make them ill.
Mr Smith concluded, ‘It’s a big step forward for us at BakPac to now have the BRC standards formally confirmed and certified.’
