The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is drafting a new set of standards governing the storage and distribution of groceries in a bid to address concerns about food safety and traceability in the wake of recent food scares.

The BRC met representatives of the food manufacturing, catering, logistics and retail sectors last month to explore the topic, said its head of technical services Kevin Swoffer.

"At the moment, BRC standards cover food packaging and manufacturing plants, but increasingly, food is being stored outside of the factory and there is no all-encompassing standard for sites such as consolidation centres, which is a worry, especially in high-risk categories," he said. "This is something that the likes of Brakes and Tesco have been asking for for years."

The standard would cover temperature controls, physical contaminants, stock rotation, traceability and incident management, said Swoffer, whose organisation is on the Food Standards Agency's incidents task force.