Audits & Certifications

BRC Certification: The Definitive Guide

By Claudia · · 6 min read

Two auditors in white coats reviewing documentation for BRC certification next to a packaging line

BRC certification, the definitive guide

If you work in quality within the food industry, chances are BRC certification is already part of your day-to-day, or it's on your roadmap for the coming months. It's one of the most internationally recognized food safety standards, and earning it — or keeping it — takes systematic, documented, ongoing work. In this guide, we cover everything you need to know: what it is, who it applies to, how the standard is structured, and how to prepare your organization to pass the audit with confidence.

What BRCGS certification is and who it applies to

The BRCGS standard (formerly known simply as BRC) is a global food safety standard developed by BRCGS (British Retail Consortium Global Standards) (BRCGS, n.d.). It was launched in the UK in the late 1990s to meet large retailers' need to evaluate the safety and quality of their suppliers in a consistent way, and it has since become a global benchmark recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) (GFSI, n.d.).

The certification mainly applies to food manufacturers and processors that supply large retail chains, supermarkets, foodservice operators, or any customer that requires formal assurance of food safety management. Companies at other points in the chain can also certify through variants of the standard, such as BRCGS Packaging, BRCGS Storage & Distribution, or BRCGS Agents & Brokers. In this article, we focus on the most widely used version: BRC Food, currently in its 9th edition.

If you'd like to understand how this standard fits into the broader ecosystem of quality and food safety standards, we recommend reading our article on quality standards and regulations in the food industry.

Structure and requirements of the BRCGS standard

The BRC Food standard is organized around a series of sections that cover every critical aspect of safe food production. Understanding its structure well is the first step toward tackling the BRC requirements in an organized way.

The standard is built around the following main blocks:

  • Senior management commitment: certification requires leadership to actively drive the food safety management system, not just endorse it. It calls for periodic reviews, adequate resources, and a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Food safety plan (HACCP): this is the technical core of the standard. A properly documented, validated, and maintained Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system is required, grounded in Codex Alimentarius principles.
  • Quality and food safety management system: covers document control, non-conformity management, corrective actions, internal audits, and complaint handling.
  • Site standards: facility design and maintenance, pest control, cleaning and disinfection, waste management, and water control.
  • Product control: allergen management, traceability, foreign body control, product inspection and testing, and shelf life management.
  • Process control: validation and control of production parameters, and management of measuring equipment and calibration.
  • Personnel: training, hygiene, staff facilities, and supervision.
  • High-risk, high-care, and ambient zones: additional specific requirements depending on product type and process.
  • Purchasing requirements: approval and monitoring of suppliers and raw materials.

One of the things that sets BRC Food apart is its requirement scoring system. Some requirements are marked as fundamental — failing one automatically means failing the audit — while the rest are graded based on how critical the deviation found is. Understanding this hierarchy is key to prioritizing effort during preparation.

How to prepare for the BRC audit

Passing a BRC audit takes ongoing preparation, not just a last-minute sprint. Here are the fundamental steps we recommend to quality managers:

1. Run a gap analysis. Compare your management system's current state against every requirement in the standard. Identify gaps, prioritize actions, and set up a work plan with clear owners and deadlines.

2. Lock down your documentation and records. The standard requires evidence that processes are managed correctly and systematically. That includes up-to-date procedures, validated HACCP plans, process control records, calibrations, test results, internal audits, training, and corrective actions. No records, no evidence.

3. Run regular internal audits. Internal audits are an explicit requirement of the standard, and they're also the best tool for catching deviations before the external auditor does. You can learn more about structuring this process in our article on ISO 9001 audits, whose auditing principles apply just as well here.

4. Involve leadership and every department. BRC certification isn't just the quality department's job. Production, maintenance, logistics, purchasing, and HR all play active roles. Leadership needs to show visible, committed leadership.

5. Manage non-conformities rigorously. Every deviation found — whether in internal audits or day-to-day operations — needs to go through a formal root cause analysis and corrective action process. Your history of non-conformities and how they were resolved is one of the things external auditors scrutinize most closely.

6. Prepare your team for audit day. Staff need to know the system, be able to answer questions about their processes, and have quick access to the records that concern them. Training and internal communication matter just as much as documentation.

How Solved gathers evidence and records for BRC

One of the biggest challenges quality managers face when preparing for a BRC audit is scattered information: paper records, disconnected spreadsheets, emails with attachments… Pulling all the evidence together when the auditor asks for it can become a source of stress and mistakes.

Solved is quality software built specifically for the food industry that centralizes all food safety and quality management on a single digital platform. This has a direct, very tangible impact on preparing for and maintaining BRC certification:

  • Digital records in real time: every process check, test, calibration, cleaning task, and verification is logged in the system the moment it happens, with full traceability of who, when, and what.
  • Non-conformity and corrective action management: the entire flow from detection to closure is documented, making it easy to demonstrate continuous improvement to the auditor.
  • Internal audits and checklists: Solved lets you schedule and run internal audits with criteria aligned to BRC requirements, automatically generating reports that are ready for review.
  • Document management: up-to-date procedures, instructions, and plans, accessible to the whole team with full version control.
  • Traceability and allergen management: structured information that lets you respond in minutes to any auditor request about batches, raw materials, or issues.

In short, Solved turns quality management into a continuous, organized, easily auditable process instead of a reactive scramble in the days before the audit. If you'd like to see how it can help with your certification process, feel free to request a demo.

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