BRCGS Food Safety is a GFSI benchmarked standard for all food businesses whether they supply into retail, wholesale or business to business. It covers any food processing operation where open food is handled, processed or packed, from primary processors (abattoirs, flour mills, dairies) to retail processing and packing operations. Compliance with this standard helps ensure that your products are safe, legal and of a quality that means your customers make repeat purchases.

Whether you’re an established global supplier or based in an emerging market, certification to BRCGS Food Safety will ensure your customers have confidence in your food safety program and supply chain management. What’s more, by improving food safety, the Standard will also help you reduce waste, complaints, recalls and rejected products.

You can also use your certification as a marketing tool by displaying the BRCGS Food Safety logo on your publicity materials, stationery and website. And your business will appear on the BRCGS Directory too, giving you further recognition.

In addition to the main standard, there are voluntary modules covering:

  • Meat Supply Chain Module – applicable to manufacturing facilities that use red meat, poultry and/or game, further processed meat products and/or offal of red meat and poultry as raw material in the production of meat or meat preparations. Not applicable to slaughterhouses who only process meat slaughtered on site.
  • Meeting FSMA Requirements for Food - applicable to any facility located within the US as an assessment step in preparation for their required compliance date. It may be used by facilities outside of the US who see this market as a current or future export target, to show evidence to the importer of record that they have specifically addressed certain aspects of the supplier verification program.

Free pdf copy of the Standard can be downloaded from the BRCGS Store. Select “Free pdf” from the Format drop down menu.

If you are new to certification against BRCGS Food Safety and feel an independent pre-assessment would help gauge you preparedness prior to an initial audit, please get in contact.

BRCGS Food Safety - Audit frequency

Frequency of inspection depends on the grade awarded which is based on the number and level of non-conformities. Audits are at least every twelve months, dropping to six months if the site doesn't meet the required level of compliance.

BRCGS Food Safety - Audit duration

Audit duration is based on standards specific audit duration calculators to determine how long an inspection should be. Factors such as the size and complexity of your company, the number of HACCP plans and number of people working on the main shift will all be taken into account. However, a minimum of two days audit duration is expected for food businesses, but can be up to four and a half days for larger, more complex sites.