BRCGS Food certification

TUV NORD Polska is accredited by the Polish Centre for Accreditation for the BRCGS Food as part of the Product Certification Body AC 103.

The scope and duration of the audit depends on the size and special nature of the company - food production plant subject to voluntary assessment of compliance with the requirements of the BRCGS Food standard. Typical minimum time is 2 days (8-9 hours on site), minimum 50% of time in the production area.

BRSGS standard clauses provide the requirements identified as fundamental to achieve compliance.

The basic scope includes: top management commitment, food safety plan - HACCP, food safety and quality management system, plant-related standards, product control, process control, personnel, high-risk, high-care and ambient high-care production risk zones, requirements for traded products (in a separate 9th chapter).

The latest edition of BRCGS Food v.8 :

• encourages the development of a product safety culture
• extends environmental monitoring requirements
• encourages further development of food safety and protection systems
• helps to understand the requirements for high-risk, high-care and ambient high-care production risk zones
• provides greater clarity of requirements for pet food plants
• can be applied globally and is comparable to GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) guidelines

BRCGS Food offers two audit options:

• Announced - the company agrees the audit date in advance with the certification body
• Unannounced - the company is not informed in advance about the date of the audit

NOTE!

As of 2021 - mandatory unannounced audit as 1 of 3 in the certification/re-certification cycle.

Audits conducted in accordance with BRCGS standard may be announced or unannounced. Announced audits result in a grade from AA to D, unannounced audits additionally receive a "+" mark.

The validity of a certificate depends on the grade received, from AA to B - 12 months, from C and D - 6 months.

Additional options in the BRCGS Food standard:

BRCGS standard has been designed in a way that allows voluntary modules to be added to a regular audit. Additional modules enable manufacturing plants to demonstrate compliance with certain requirements in order to meet specific market or customer expectations.

• Globally recognised standard based on GFSI increases confidence of customers and business partners
• Includes a reporting system and certification acceptable to clients instead of conducting their own audits - time and cost reduction
• Certified companies presented in the publicly available BRC Global Standards catalogue, which is a recognition of their achievements and allows the use of the logo for marketing purposes
• The scope of the standard is comprehensive and covers issues relating to product safety, quality, legal compliance and product integrity
• It covers the supervision of suppliers, providing an assessment of compliance with good practices in food safety management
• Provides a variety of audit options, including announced and unannounced audit programmes, to meet customer requirements and enable businesses to demonstrate compliance with expectations in a way that best suits the company's profile and the maturity of its food safety assurance systems
• Requires corrective actions to be taken in relation to non-conformities with the requirements of the standard and the root cause analysis of these non-conformities, thus ensuring the monitoring of the system for continuous improvement