Watson Inc. said it passed its certification and earned an “A” rating from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), a leading trade association for retailing in the United Kingdom.  Although the BRC food safety standard began in the UK, it is now recognized as a global standard.

Officials say the auditing program benefits Watson’s quality incentives and customer focus programs.  The audit took place last October at Watson’s West Haven, Conn., facilities.  The company earned its certification last November. Watson supplies custom nutrient premixes, bakery ingredients, fibers, stabilizers, viscosifiers, microencapsulated ingredients and more to food and beverage processors.

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a project led by the business forum CIES to harmonize international food safety standards and reduce the need for multiple supplier audits. The CIES members include leading retailer organizations and food manufacturers.  BRC developed the first standard to be recognized as meeting the GFSI benchmark. Benchmarking to GFSI ensures that the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety is accepted by many of the world’s largest retail interests.  The BRC’s ability to react to changing food safety concerns and meet customer requirements has resulted in the BRC Standard becoming one of the most popular GFSI standards.