BRCGS consultancy and certification for food and packaging sites

What BRCGS involves and what we deliver

BRCGS publishes a family of Global Standards used by retailers and brand owners to approve suppliers. The best known is the Global Standard for Food Safety, which is benchmarked by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). Others cover packaging materials, storage and distribution, agents and brokers, and consumer products.

BRCGS standards are prescriptive. They set out detailed clauses on senior management commitment and food safety culture, the HACCP plan, the food safety and quality management system, site standards, product control, process control and personnel. Some clauses are marked fundamental: a major nonconformity against one of them prevents certification.

Our role is to prepare your site clause by clause, run a mock audit and arrange the certification audit with an approved certification body.

• Choice of the right BRCGS standard and audit option for your site
• Gap analysis against every clause, with priority on fundamental requirements
• Support on HACCP, site standards, allergen, foreign body and labelling controls
• Mock audit and corrective action plan before the certification audit
• Arrangement of the audit with an approved certification body

Senior management commitment is the first section of the food standard for a reason. Auditors expect to see managers who know the food safety plan, attend reviews, resource improvements and support a culture where staff report problems. A site with good paperwork but absent management rarely earns a high grade.

Grades, audit options and choosing between BRCGS and FSSC 22000

A BRCGS food audit results in a grade based on the number and type of nonconformities, from AA down to D, with a plus added to grades from unannounced audits. Retailers often look at the grade as well as the certificate, so preparation is about more than passing: it is about earning a grade your customers respect.

Sites can choose an announced audit or an unannounced one. The unannounced option is valued by many customers and earns the plus grade, but requires the site to be audit-ready every day. A blended option splits the audit into an unannounced on-site part and a remote document review in some cases.

Compared with FSSC 22000, BRCGS is more detailed and prescriptive; FSSC 22000 follows the ISO management system approach. Both are GFSI-benchmarked. Retailer preference often decides: ask your main customers which they want before you start.

Grades also affect how often you are audited. Lower grades bring a shorter interval before the next audit, which adds cost and pressure, so investing in preparation usually pays back over the following years.

What decides the price

BRCGS consultancy with EUROTECH starts at $2,000. The final price depends on your number of employees, the complexity of your processes and the scope of certification.

• BRCGS standard: food safety, packaging, storage and distribution, or another
• Product categories and processes on site
• Number of HACCP plans and production lines
• Employees and shifts
• Starting point: existing ISO 22000 or HACCP system, or from scratch

The certification body audit fee depends on the standard, the audit duration set by BRCGS rules and travel.

Sites with several product categories, such as raw and ready-to-eat products, or high-risk and high-care areas, need more preparation and longer audits, because segregation and hygiene zoning are examined in detail.

Mock audits are the best value step in preparation, because they show the likely grade before it counts.