BRCGS is a retailer-run global body that audits food safety standards across the food and drink supply chain. The certification process is recognised internationally as the most rigorous and comprehensive of its type, setting recognised industry benchmarks for manufacturing and logistics best practice, quality assurance and legal governance.
As a non-manufacturing stockist and distributor of food ingredients and additives, Norkem was audited under the body’s Agents and Broker certification scheme. Like all BRCGS standards, this certificate provides a framework for the management of food product safety, authenticity, quality and legality but specifically as it relates to businesses, like Norkem, that serve and supply food product manufacturers and processors but do not undertake those operations directly themselves.
At Norkem, we have always taken our role in maintaining and influencing product and safety quality standards with the utmost importance. Ingredient supply is an important cog in the chain of control, and we fully embrace the fact that where we source our products from, how we store and transport them, and, crucially, how we guarantee traceability of every product we supply is critical to our customers being able to achieve the quality and safety standards both consumers and the law expect.
To that end, regaining BRCGS accreditation is a key part of our growth plans. It demonstrates to retailers, food service companies and manufacturers that Norkem has the professionalism and expertise to be a trusted partner for all food ingredient and additive needs, working to the very highest standards across the board.
It was therefore a great testament to the hard work of everyone involved to learn that, on completion of the audit process, we had passed with no areas of non-compliance identified. This is especially gratifying given the ongoing expansion we have seen in our food and drink supply operations, including working with a number of new suppliers over the course of the past year.
This shows that our quality control and safety vetting procedures are in a great place, which bodes well for continued expansion of our food and drink based sales operations across mainland Europe.
A huge thank you to all from our food and drink and QHSE teams who were involved in steering us through the audit process.