New Enhancement: New accreditations list

This time we’re looking at a major enhancement to the list of accreditations you can highlight on your Erudus specifications, which comes following a comprehensive review of all specifications with accreditations declared that weren’t in our list, and feedback from our users on what needs to be included to populate a comprehensive industry accreditation list.

So, what’s changing and what new accreditations are we adding?

You’ll be able to see a comprehensive list of all accreditations you can showcase on your Erudus specification below - including both existing and new options, but the big news is that we’re breaking out BRCGS (Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standard) certification into the different areas that you can be accredited in. This allows for more specificity about what BRCGS certification is for within a Manufacturer's facility. The options are:

• BRCGS Certified
• BRCGS Food Safety
• BRCGS Storage and Distribution
• BRCGS Agents and Brokers
• BRCGS Consumer products
• BRCGS Packaging
• BRCGS Ethical Trade and Responsible Sourcing
• BRCGS Plant Based
• BRCGS START!

The full list of accreditations you can showcase on Erudus

• Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)
• Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS)
• Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) Certification
• B Corp Certification
• British Meat Processors Association (BMPA)
• Beer and Pub Association (BBPA)
• Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI)
• British Lion Mark
• Campden Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (CLAS)
• Ethical Tea Partnership
• Fairtrade
• Farm Assured Welsh Livestock
• Feed Materials Assurance Scheme (FEMAS)
• Food for Life Supplier Scheme
• RSPCA Assured
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
• FSSC 22000
• IFS Food Standard

• ISO 14001 (Environmental Management)
• ISO 22000 (Food Safety Management)
• ISO 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety)
• ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management Systems)
• LEAF Marque (Linking Environment and Farming)
• Loop Recycled Content
• Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
• Northern Ireland Beef & Lamb Farm Quality Assurance Scheme
• Organic
• Quality Meat Scotland
• Rainforest Alliance
• Red Tractor
• Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
• SALSA (Safe & Local Supplier Approval)
• School Approved (The Requirement for School Food Regulation 2014)
• Sedex
• Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA)
• Specialist Cheesemakers Association (SCA)
• Safe Quality Food (SQF)
• The Vegan Society
• The Vegetarian Society

Product Specification Type is our new selection of specification categories. When uploading a product’s specification to Erudus, Manufacturers will now select the "type" of specification which is most suitable for that product. The type they select will then determine what attributes are presented (or not presented) when completing the specification.

Only accreditations relative to the product type you have selected will be shown when completing your specification - for example for a Fish product you will see Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification but not accreditation for Northern Ireland Beef & Lamb Farm Quality Assurance Scheme, cutting out the stuff irrelevant to you and making the specification easier to fill out. Find out more about Product Specification Types here.

Why are we adding more certifications to our list if you can already list those not included in a free text box?

It’s true that currently, if your product has a certification that isn’t listed on the specification you can manually enter it in a free text box, but this only works for viewing a specification through the Erudus portal - it doesn't work when trying to filter data or display data using the API. By having an enhanced list of accreditations Manufacturers can more accurately and accessibly declare the certifications for their products, and by having these certifications tied to specific data points, the data is more easy to filter and find what you need.

How does the enhanced accreditations list benefit our users?

Erudus Manufacturers will be able to document their accreditations more completely (and accurately) - in turn making them easier to access by Wholesalers. Wholesalers will also be able to filter products using accreditations, should they be looking for products accredited with specific certifications.

What if an accreditation I have isn’t on the enhanced list?

Don’t worry - there is capacity for more accreditations to be included on the list and we encourage users to talk to us if there is anything missing, by contact the Erudus Support Team via support@erudus.com or on 0333 121 8999.

Do I add my accreditations from the enhanced list in the same way I added those from the old list?

Yes - nothing has changed for selecting accreditations or uploading them. When uploading a certification you can also add the grade of the certification and the site code for the certification to give a bit of extra context when looking at your list, but the process remains exactly the same.

For even more information, keep an eye on the Erudus Events page

We’ll be hosting a whole suite of webinars and other activities designed to help you adjust to the changes coming to the Erudus platform, and show off all the benefits you can enjoy. We’ll be listing them all on our Events page here, so be sure to check in regularly.