Raw fish is the lowest-scoring category in a new British Retail Consortium (BRC) report measuring food safety globally.
The second edition of the BRC’s annual “Food Safety – A Global View” report uses data from audits of 17,000 food sites conducted by BRC Global Standards last year in 120 countries.
Unlike the previous edition, it categorizes the data by food group rather than by country to provide a global view of food safety information and performance data, covering the 18 categories – from bakery goods to raw red meat – in the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. The report also highlights local trends within these categories, mapping areas of strengths and weaknesses, and showcasing growth markets.
BRC’s raw fish category comprises chilled and frozen wet fish, molluscs, crustaceans, cold smoked fish and ready-prepared fish products.
Its raw fish audit sample comprised 1,263 sites globally, with the largest number located in China, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Globally, 68.7 percent of sites achieved an A-grade rating, the joint lowest result among the 18 categories and 10 percent lower than the global all-category average. Within this, 50.5 percent of new sites received grade-A, compared to 71.9 percent of renewal sites. Both figures are below average, said the report.
The United Kingdom had the highest percentage of A-grades, at 88.9 percent for new sites and 93.3 percent for renewal sites. In contrast, just 12.5 percent of new Chinese raw fish sites and 39.3 percent of renewal sites achieved A-grades, both of which are considerably below average, said the report.
Overall, the most common areas for non-conformity in raw fish production sites were Housekeeping and Hygiene, Building Fabric and Product Contamination Control. At the same time, raw fish delivered positive results in the volume of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) non-conformities, where results equaled or were below the global average. In new sites, HACCP prevalence was 6.8 percent better than the all-category global average.
Non-conformity in Chemical Control Processes was an issue in almost a quarter of all Chinese audits, where the Identification of Raw Materials and Testing Traceability Systems were also significantly above average incidence.
In Vietnam, Ceilings non-conformities were prominent, while in the United Kingdom, Doors non-conformities occurred frequently.
On the whole, however, the raw fish category demonstrated better than average performance in non-conformities relating to Documenting Brittle Material Handling Procedures, Documenting Cleaning Procedures and Corrective Action, said the report.
In terms of overall category performance, raw poultry producers emerged as the global leaders of BRC food safety standards, with 86.3 percent of sampled sites receiving an A-grade rating. Raw prepared products foods sites achieved the second-highest score globally with 84.2 percent of A-grades, followed by raw red meat, cereal and nuts, and ready-to-eat meals.
