BRC (British Retail Consortium, V8) application in black olive paste production

Providing healthy food is one of the most important requirements of the societies. The rapid increase of the world's population, the environmental pollution that emerges with the developing technology, the inadequacies in the economy and education issues increase the problems related to nutrition and make the supply of safe / healthy food more difficult. With the developing technology, the risks and emerging hazards in food and agricultural products have become into light. The development of global markets, increased awareness of consumers' perception and sensitivity for healthy/safe foods, and environmental issues along with the diversity in the demands for food products and purchasing leads the producers to act more sensitive and conscious about the health hazards. In olive paste industry the raw material has the same quality with table olive except the piece count. Using small olives in olive paste production has the advantage for industry to minimize environmental problems and help companies to have a tasteful, healthy economical products. Although having the same the quality parameters with table olives, small-size olives are generally processed to olive oil. In recent years to prevent/minimise economic losses and environmental problems, black olives with understandart-graded are preffered for olive paste production. The main purpose of the BRC (British Retail Consortium Standard) is to help to improve food safety by providing an inclusive framework for globally-recognized food safety standards. When the standards related to olive paste, physical, chemical and microbiological risk elements and economic reasons are taken into consideration, it is of great importance that the product is produced, stored and transported according to certain standards in terms of food safety and quality all along farm-to-table. In this context, the application of the GFSI approved BRC standard, one of the most advanced global standards, to olive paste production could provide a significant market advantage for the producers.