BRCGS Food Safety

The BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard is the market-leading program of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). It sets clear food safety requirements and covers 18 different food categories in total.

The standard provides a framework to manage product safety, integrity, legality and quality, as well as the operational controls for these criteria in the food and food ingredient manufacturing, processing and packing industry.

The standard is recognized worldwide and is designed to reflect best practices and provide a traceable, risk-based approach to product safety and certification.

The program:

• is recognized at international level, including GFSI benchmarking;
• provides a single standard and a protocol that regulates accredited auditing by external certification bodies and enables a credible, independent assessment of a company’s product safety and quality systems;
• covers a comprehensive scope (quality, legality, product safety, food defense, authenticity);
• helps to reduce waste, complaints, recalls and rejected products;
• enables companies to ensure that their suppliers adhere to good product safety practices;
• provides a framework for developing quality and hygiene management systems in companies and promotes continual improvement, waste reduction and increased efficiency;
• offers a range of audit options, including announced and unannounced audit programs;
• is suitable for companies with multiple sites including headquarters, outsourced operations, and external warehouses operated entirely by the certified site;
• enables listing in the publicly available BRC Global Standards Directory upon successful certification.

• All manufacturing and packaging stages of the supply chain from primary processing of agricultural products to manufacturers of consumer products.
• Companies that produce private label products and/or own market products of customers or that process and package food products and pet food on behalf of customers.
• The standard may also include traded goods in its scope (manufacturers who also offer wholesale products that they buy and sell, but do not process).
• The food standard covers all food categories including pet foods.

The standard is divided into 9 sections:

• Senior Management Commitment
• The Food Safety Plan – HACCP
• Food Safety and Quality Management System
• Site Standards
• Product Control
• Process Control
• Personnel
• Production Risk Zones – High-risk, High-care and Ambient High-care
• Traded Goods

There are several audit options:

• Announced
• Unannounced*)
• Mixed/Blended (a two-part remote and on-site audit)

*) Note that it is a GFSI requirement that at least one unannounced audit is conducted every three years.

Quality Austria – Trainings, Zertifizierungs und Begutachtungs GmbH has been accredited by Accreditation Austria acc. to ISO/IEC 17065 for certifications based on BRCGS since February 2006 and is thus recognized as an Austrian certification body by BRCGS.

BRCGS Standards (Packaging Materials, Storage and Distribution, START!, Agents and Brokers, Gluten-Free, FSMA (Food Safety Modernisation Act) preparedness module and Global GAP CoC through BRCGS)

• Flyer BRCGS Food Safety - pdf (639 KB)