BRCGS Food Safety when your buyer requires it
Issue 9 is a prescriptive, graded standard, and the grade your buyers see is decided in the factory as much as in the file.
- Current issue
- Issue 9, audited since 1 February 2023
- Next issue
- Issue 10 in development, no date published
- Recognition
- GFSI-recognised
- Audit cycle
- Every 12 months, or 6 for grades C and D
- Pace
- You and your certification body
BRCGS Global Standard Food Safety (often still called BRC) is a GFSI-recognised certification standard for food manufacturers and packers, used by retailers and brands to approve suppliers. Issue 9 is the current issue. Sites are graded from AA to D, re-audited every 6 or 12 months depending on the grade, and the report can be shared with customers through the BRCGS Directory.
- 01 Enquiry
- 02 Gap analysis
- 03 Plan
- 04 Build
- 05 Embed
- 06 Internal audit
- 07 Close out
- 08 Management review
- 09 Handover
BRCGS Food Safety when your buyer requires it sits at step 4 of the readiness cycle. You receive the documented management system.
Where BRCGS sites lose points
The most-cited findings at BRCGS audits are about the factory, not the paperwork.
In the non-conformity data BRCGS has shared, cleaning and hygiene, equipment design and chemical control are among the most cited clauses. A site can hold a tidy HACCP file and still lose its grade on the building.
One of the most common majors is not a hygiene failure at all: a re-audit held after its due date, often because the booking or paperwork moved slowly. It is entirely avoidable, and it costs a grade.
The other surprise for sites coming from HACCP or ISO 22000 is how prescriptive the standard is. A food safety and quality culture plan reviewed every year, objectives reported every quarter, food safety meetings every month, internal audits on at least four dates a year, and a traceability test with mass balance at least once a year.
The nine sections
Sections 1 to 7 apply to every site. Section 8 applies where products need it, and section 9 only if the site chooses to include traded products.
| Section | What it asks for | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Senior management commitment | Policy, a food safety and quality culture plan, objectives, management review, a confidential reporting route | Every site |
| 2 The food safety plan | A HACCP plan following the Codex steps, with validated limits, monitoring and records | Every site |
| 3 Food safety and quality management system | Documents, internal audits, supplier approval, specifications, corrective action, traceability, complaints, recall | Every site |
| 4 Site standards | Security and food defence, layout and flow, fabric, equipment, maintenance, chemicals, foreign bodies, cleaning, pests, storage, transport | Every site |
| 5 Product control | Product design, labelling, allergens, food fraud, testing, shelf life, release | Every site |
| 6 Process control | Process specifications, label and pack control, quantity, calibration | Every site |
| 7 Personnel | Competence, hygiene, medical screening, protective clothing | Every site |
| 8 Production risk zones | Controls for high-risk, high-care and ambient high-care areas | Where products need them |
| 9 Traded products | Approval and control of products bought in and resold | If the site includes them |
What the project produces
Built for your site and run by your team. The standard keeps the company responsible for its own system, so we build it with you, not for a shelf.
A gap report against all nine sections
Clause by clause, with the fundamental requirements first, because a major against the statement of intent of one of them stops certification outright.
The food safety and quality culture plan
Activities, measures, an action plan and the yearly review the standard asks for, with quarterly objective reporting set up.
The HACCP plan to Issue 9
Team, flow diagrams checked on the floor, a hazard analysis that includes fraud, malicious and allergen hazards, and validated critical limits.
Food fraud and food defence assessments
A vulnerability assessment and a threat assessment, each with its plan and a yearly review.
The documented system and its records
Manual, procedures, specifications, supplier approval, traceability and recall procedures written for your site, with the records that prove they run.
A graded mock audit
The factory and the file audited the way a BRCGS auditor works, with findings graded so you see your likely grade before the real one.
Route to the audit
- 01
Confirm scope and audit option
Products, processes, any risk zones or traded products, and whether you go announced or unannounced. That fixes the grade scale and the dates.
- 02
Gap the factory and the file
Nine sections walked on the floor and read in the documents, fundamental requirements first.
- 03
Build the system
Culture plan, HACCP, fraud and defence assessments, procedures and specifications, written with the people who run them.
- 04
Run it and keep records
Internal audits at the standard's minimum frequency, a traceability test with mass balance, a recall test and a management review, each with its records.
- 05
Mock audit
Factory and file audited the way a certification body would, findings graded, corrective actions closed.
- 06
You book your audit
With an approved certification body of your choosing, before your due date.
From a HACCP certificate to a BRCGS audit
A food manufacturer holds a HACCP certificate for its licence. A retail customer now asks it for BRCGS.
The HACCP plan is the starting point, not the finish. We gap the site against all nine sections and find what HACCP never asked for: a culture plan, quarterly objectives, monthly food safety meetings, a food fraud assessment, a food defence plan and a traceability test with mass balance.
The factory walk matters more than the file. Cleaning, chemical storage, equipment design and building fabric are among the most common findings, so the fabric list goes to the maintenance team early, while the documents are being written.
The team runs the system and keeps records, an internal audit and a graded mock audit follow, and the manufacturer books its first audit with an approved certification body. It chooses announced or unannounced at that point, which decides whether a plus grade is available.
BRCGS questions
Is BRCGS Food Safety Issue 10 out?
Not yet. BRCGS has started work on Issue 10 and has published no publication or audit date. Issue 9 is the standard sites are audited against today. When Issue 10 is published, BRCGS sets the transition dates, and those are the dates to plan by.
How long is a BRCGS certificate valid?
It is not a three-year certificate. Sites graded AA to B are audited again every 12 months and sites graded C or D every 6 months, with the due date set by the audit dates, not the certificate date.
What are the grades?
AA, A, B, C and D for announced audits, with a plus on each for unannounced audits. The grade follows the number and seriousness of the non-conformities. A critical non-conformity, or a major against the statement of intent of a fundamental requirement, means no certificate.
Should we choose announced or unannounced?
Unannounced audits earn the plus grades and show buyers the site runs the same every day. They also remove the week of preparation, so they suit a site whose records are kept daily. Either way, at least one audit in every three years has to be unannounced.
BRCGS or FSSC 22000?
Both are GFSI-recognised. BRCGS is a single prescriptive standard with a graded certificate; FSSC 22000 is built on ISO 22000 and suits a site that already runs that management system. The right one is the one your customers name.
Does SFDA require BRCGS?
Not that we have seen. SFDA's licensing guide names HACCP. BRCGS is usually a customer requirement, so confirm what your licence and each customer actually ask for.
Can the consultant also be the auditor?
No. The standard keeps them apart: the certification body that audits a site cannot also consult for it. We prepare the site, and an approved certification body audits it.
Related work
HACCP
The food safety plan inside section 2, and the certificate SFDA licensing names.
Read moreStandardFSSC 22000
The other GFSI route, built on ISO 22000.
Read moreStandardISO 22000
The management system route when no customer names a GFSI scheme.
Read moreServiceInternal audit
Issue 9 sets a minimum frequency. The programme has to meet it.
Read morePart of one system
Every division keeps records to the same standard, so the second one you need works the way the first one did.
Find your likely grade before the auditor does
A gap report against all nine sections, fundamental requirements first, shows what stands between your site and a certificate, and where the points will go.