IP video helps secure food safety accreditations
IP video specialist NW Systems was recently called in by food transport and storage company, McBurney Refrigeration, to install a state-of-the-art IP camera system at McBurney’s principle UK storage depot in Liverpool.
This work formed part of a package of security and health & safety measures the company took in order to gain British Retail Consortium (BRC) food safety standards certification and the US-equivalent, called Distributors Quality Management Process (DQMP).
McBurney Refrigeration was keen to gain compliance with the BRC standard as some of its larger UK customers, including ASDA, required it as a condition of doing business with them from the start of this year. In addition, now that McBurney has achieved the ultimate UK standard for handling and storage of chilled and frozen food goods, fewer management hours are being tied up in hosting and providing documentation for customers’ own inspection teams.
Following last year’s horse meat scandal industry bodies, manufacturers and retailers alike began demanding tighter food safety standards right through the food supply chain. The first McBurney customer to demand BRC standards accreditation after the scandal broke was, unsurprisingly perhaps, the major Northern Ireland-based lamb and beef producer Dunbia.
The BRC Global Standard – Storage & Distribution Issue 2 (dated September 2010), is now considered the UK’s gold standard for safe and hygienic storage and transportation of chilled, frozen and ambient products as well as for facilities which offer blast freezing of pre-packed meat products and tempering of pre-packed bread products.
