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BRCGS Certification

The BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard has set the benchmark for over 20 years. It is the leading Global Food Safety Initiative ( GFSI) Scheme.

The BRCGS Food Safety Standard is the most widely accepted by global retailers, food service companies, procurement companies, agents and brokers, and manufacturers when assessing the capabilities of their suppliers.

IRCLASS is accredited for BRCGS – Food Safety Issue 9 by NABCB

Key Benefits for Food Safety Sites

Product safety, quality, integrity and legality covered comprehensively, with risk-based requirements.

Single standard and protocol that govern an accredited audit by third-party certiﬁcation bodies

Allow sites to demonstrate compliance to local regulation.

Globally recognised through GFSI-benchmarked standard that provides a report and certiﬁcation which can be accepted by customers in place of their own audits, thus reducing time and cost

Option for certiﬁcated companies to appear in the publicly available section of the BRCGS Directory,

Free access to an all-inclusive set of tools designed to drive continuous improvement

Range of audit options, including announced, unannounced and blended audit programmes, to satisfy customer demands

BRCGS Standard Scope

BRCGS Audits Options

There are a number of audit options available for sites and these have expanded for Issue 9.

Announced audit programme (with mandatory unannounced audit every 3 years)

Blended announced audit programme (with mandatory unannounced audit every 3 years)

Unannounced audit programme

BRCGS Audit Protocol

Reference : BRCGS – Food Safety standard Issue 9

Visit https://www.brcgs.com/

Download a copy of the Standard

Review any appropriate guidelines

Select an audit option(announced, unannounced or blended),with or without additional modules

Self-assess compliance with the standard

Select a certification body

Definr scope of thrr audit

Ensure information and appropriate personal are available for the audit, even in the event of an unannounced audit.

Provide information to certifiaction body foor audit preparation

Define audit date(or parameters if unannounced) and agree audit duration based on audit duration calculator

The audit will consist of several different audit techniques, including:

Opening meeting
Production facility inspection
Document review
vertical audit (including traceability challenge and mass balance)
Final review of finding
closing meeting

Carry our corrective action, root cause analyze and develop a preventive action plan for nay non-conformities identified. Evidence must be submitted within 28 days of the end of the audit.

Certification body reviews evidence in 14 days.

If corrective action, root cause analysis and preventive action plan are deemed satisfactory, a certificate, audit report and corresponding grade will be issued within 42 days of the audit.

Ongoing maintenance of the standard and continual improvement.

Gec login details for the BRCGS Directory and share audit report.

Use of BRCGS Logo.

Ongoing communication with certification body.

Schedule re-audit date before the next audit id due.

BRCGS Start!

The START! programme has been developed to complement the BRCGS Global Standard Food Safety . It provides opportunities to recognise and encourage the development of food safety systems in small sites where the full requirements of the Standard may not always be practical or add value and in sites that are still developing food safety management systems. The START! programme is aligned with the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Global Markets programme.

IRClass – IRQS offers BRCGS Start! unaccredited certification service to help sites build robust food safety practices.

The START! programme will enable audits and certification against two levels of requirements:

Basic
Intermediate

The Basic- and the Intermediate-level requirements of the START! programme provides recognised stepping stones towards eventual certification to the full Standard (if required).

Benefits of the START! programme

Is aligned with the GFSI Global Markets programme (the full Standard is GFSI-benchmarked)

Provides a clearly defined audit and certification process operated in accordance with the requirements of accreditation

Uses auditors that meet the demanding competency requirements of the BRCGS Global Standards

enables companies achieving certification at the Basic and Intermediate levels to appear in the publicly available part of the BRCGS Directory, thereby recognising their achievements

uses requirements based on the Standard, enabling the Basic and Intermediate levels to provide effective stepping stones towards full certification (if required by customers)

requires completion of corrective actions on any non-conformities before certification at the Basic or Intermediate level is awarded, thus reducing the need for customers to follow up audit reports.

The scope of the START! programme

processed foods, both own brand and customer-branded

raw materials or ingredients for use by food service companies, catering companies and/or food manufacturers

primary products, such as fruit and vegetables

pet foods for domestic animals and animal feed

products from animal primary conversion.

The START! programme does not apply to food products that do not undergo any process at the audited site or to activities relating to wholesale, importation, distribution or storage outside the direct control of the company.

Relationship between the full Standard and the START! programme

In developing the requirements for the Basic and Intermediate levels of the START! programme, the following criteria have been taken into account:

All the clauses at the Basic and Intermediate levels are the same as or closely derived from the clauses in the full Standard.

The requirements at the Basic level are designed to ensure, as a minimum, legal compliance. They match or exceed the requirements at an equivalent level in the GFSI Global Markets programme.

The requirements at the Intermediate level are more detailed, building upon legal compliance, an expansion of the HACCP process, and the development of a documented quality management system. They again match or exceed the requirements at an equivalent level in the GFSI Global Markets programme.

Audit protocol – BRCGS Start! Issue 1
Reference : BRCGS Start! Standard

Revision of the START! Programme

BRCGS Start! Issue 2 released on 01 March 2023

Certification against Issue 2 will commence on 1 September 2023.

All certificates issued against audits carried out prior to this date will be against Issue 1 and be valid for the period specified on the certificate.

For details about the BRCGS Global Standard, visit www.brcgs.com

Financial Support

IRQS a division of IRCLASS Systems and Solutions Pvt Ltd obtains its financial support from the revenue generated from the certification activities involving the management systems and certifying products, processes and services.

Also from the revenue generated from the other services of IRQS.

BRCGS Certification Fee structure

The fee structure is calculated based on BRCGS Document #F806: Audit Duration Calculator.

The audit duration calculator is based on:

• Number of employees – as full time equivalent employees per main shift including seasonal workers. This should be based on the maximum number expected in a shift.

• Size of the manufacturing facility (in square metres) – including onsite storage facilities. The conversion from square feet to metres is 10.76 (eg 86,000 square feet equals 8,000 square metres).

• The number of HACCP plans included within scope – for the purpose of this calculator, a HACCP plan corresponds to a family of products with similar hazards and similar production technology and will therefore usually correspond to the number of product types.

The other factors identified in the Standard (see appendix 1) may influence the calculation but are considered to be less significant.

Application, Accreditation and License fees will be charged in addition to the above. The quotation will be available on request.

The fees payable and terms of payment are as detailed in the IRQS letter enclosing the quotation to the organisation.

The basic charges for services requested are based on the assumption that the information supplied by the organisation was accurate and complete.

Responsibility of Auditee Organization

The client shall always fulfil the certification requirements and changes communicated by the IRQS
A contract shall exist between the company to be audited and IRCLASS- IRQS in accordance with the requirements of accreditation and detailing the scope of the audit and the reporting requirements. The site shall provide accurate information prior to the audit in order to adequately plan the audit activity.
A copy of the audit report and any subsequent certificate or audit result shall be supplied to BRCGS and the Accreditation Body in the agreed format for the BRCGS Standard used.
The company/ site formally agrees that as part of this contractual requirements, all documents in relation to the audit shall be made available to BRCGS and other relevant stakeholders such as GFSI and government bodies upon request. All documents submitted to BRCGS shall be copies of original documents. Documents provided to BRCGS will be treated as confidential.
The client company / site shall advise IRQS of any changes of circumstances that may affect the validity of continuing certification.
The company/site agrees that in a condition of undertaking an audit using a BRCGS scheme that the auditor may be accompanied by other personnel for training, assessment or calibration purposes. This activity may include:

training of new auditors by IRQS
routine IRQS shadow audit programmes
witness audits by Accreditation Bodies
witness audits by BRCGS
Witness audits by a specifier where a specifier specific additional audit module is included

BRCGS reserves the right to conduct its own audit or visit to a site once certificated in response to complaints or as part of the routine BRCGS compliance activity to ensure the integrity of the BRCGS schemes. Such visits may be announced or unannounced.
Certification status may be affected in the event that access to any parts of the site or process or requests to these points specified above is unreasonably refused.
Please be aware that BRCGS may contact the site directly in relation to its certification status or for feedback on IRQS performance, or investigation into reported issues.
Acknowledge any specific requirements for additional audit modules in accordance with the protocol of those modules. This shall include the confidentiality of information.
IRQS office issuing the certificate shall receive the signed contract document directly from the client.
Formal agreement from the client of BRCGS audit duration, the audit dates, the allocated auditor and the audit costs shall be received directly to IRQS office.
Incident Notification and action: As part of this contractual relationship with certificated sites, the site shall notify IRQS within 3 days of:

any impending prosecution or enforcement with respect to product safety or legality
all product recalls
adverse media or regulatory authority interest
evidence of a significant public safety issue (e.g. food poisoning outbreak or customer injury)
evidence of significant failings at the certificated site (e.g. fraud, corruption or significant malpractice)
adverse public statements by a regulatory authority, NGO or major retailer
significant public safety concerns bringing BRCGS into disrepute

The aim of this notification is to allow IRQS to assess whether the incident is indicative of a failure of the site’s systems. IRQS shall take the necessary steps to fully understand the implications of the situation and take appropriate actions. This may include requests for additional information, a further visit to the site, further full or partial re-audits, suspension or withdrawal of the BRCGS certificate.

Upon suspension or withdrawal of certification, the client site shall discontinue its use of all advertising matter that contains any reference thereto and returns as required by the certification scheme any certification documents and takes any other measure.
On receipt of instruction for suspension of certification, the certified sites shall suspend using the BRCGS/ NABCB/ IRQS logo with immediate effect.
The client site shall endeavour to ensure that no certificate or report nor any part thereof is used in a misleading manner.
If the client site provides copies of the certification documents to others, the documents shall be reproduced in their entirety.

BRCGS