Published 15 Aug 2023
What is a BRC Audit?
A BRC Audit, or BRC Food Safety Audit, is the British Retail Consortium’s official assessment of a food manufacturer’s adherence to its Global Standard for Food Safety. Conducted by an accredited certification body, this practice thoroughly examines all processes and documents involved in the nine core areas of food manufacturing operation. BRC audits have a grading system that depends on whether the particular visit is announced or unannounced, it is also mandatory but food sectors will be notified accordingly. This ensures that food-producing companies strictly follow compliance in their daily operations.
In this article
- Why is BRC Audit Important?
- What Does British Retail Consortium Focus On?
- What is a BRC Audit Checklist?
- What Does a BRC Audit Checklist Include?
- How to Prepare for a BRC Audit
- FAQs About BRC Food Safety
- Performing Food Safety Audits Using SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor)
- Top Digital BRC Food Safety Audit Checklists
Why is BRC Audit Important?
The BRC has recently released the latest version of their auditing code, Issue 9, and audits in accordance with it began on February 1st, 2023. Gaining certification will prove that the business is operating according to a recognized international standard for food safety. Being certified will also be advantageous for businesses as it can make partnerships move likely with other businesses that recognize or even require BRC certification.
What Does British Retail Consortium Focus On?
The latest version of BRC, issue 9, emphasizes the importance of creating a culture of safety and striving for continuous improvement. To achieve those standards, this plan requires open communication on product safety, consistent employee training, rich insights and observed behavior changes from employees, better performance measurement that focuses on safety, and an effort to promote a culture of excellence that aims to always raise the quality of products and processes.
In detail, issue 9 highlights the following requirements:
- Management commitment – leaders of companies should help ensure the implementation and continuous improvement of food safety processes
- HACCP (food safety plan) – implementing HACCP can help identify and manage risks in food production
- Food safety and quality management system – proper documentation of processes in place helps manage the safety of food production and keep staff properly informed
- Site standards – setting and maintaining the ideal site for food production
- Product control – setting controls in place such as allergen management and product testing
- Process control – this is ensuring that the documented HACCP plan is consistently followed to maintain product quality
- Personnel – ensure that employees are trained, wearing PPE, and following proper hygiene
- High Risk, High Care, and Ambient High Care Production Risk Zones – ensure that products susceptible to pathogen contamination have control measures to improve safety
- Traded Products – ensure sites that purchase and sell food products properly process and pack them to avoid contamination
The BRC certification process involves a third party audit on-site where all parts of the requirements are assessed. Depending on the assessed grade a re-certification audit will be required every 6 or 12 months.
What is a BRC Audit Checklist?
A BRC audit checklist is a tool that food manufacturing businesses can use to perform regular inspections in preparation for a certification audit. With a comprehensive audit checklist, food manufacturers can proactively spot non-conformance, determine unsafe food production methods, or identify areas of improvement and immediately correct them to comply with the current BRC standards.
What Does a BRC Audit Checklist Include?
Since each BRC clause has a specific set of requirements, they should be reflected in a BRC audit checklist. Aside from key details such as site name, location, date of inspection, and signature of auditor, they should include the following:
Clause 1 – Management Commitment
- Senior management commitment and continual improvement
- Organizational structure, responsibilities, and management authority
Clause 2 – The Food Safety Plan: HACCP
- The HACCP food safety team
- Prerequisite programs
- Describing the product
- Identifying intended use
- Constructing a process flow diagram
- Verifying flow diagram
- Listing of potential hazards associated with each process step
- Determining the critical control points (CCPs)
- Establishing validated critical limits, monitoring systems, and corrective action plans for each CCP
- Validating the HACCP plan and establish verification procedure
- HACCP documentation and record-keeping
Clause 3 – Food Safety and Quality Management System
- Food safety and quality manual
- Document control
- Record completion and maintenance
- Internal audits
- Supplier and raw material approval and performance monitoring
- Raw material and packaging acceptance, monitoring and management procedures
- Management of suppliers of services
- Management of outsourced processing
- Specifications
- Corrective and preventive actions
- Control of non-conforming product
- Traceability
- Complaint-handling
- Management of incidents, product withdrawal and product recall
- External standards and site security
- Food Defence
- Layout, product flow, and segregation
- Building fabric, raw material handling, preparation, processing, packing, and storage areas
- Utilities – water, ice, air, and other gases
- Equipment
- Maintenance
- Staff facilities
- Chemical and physical product contamination control
- Foreign-body detection and removal equipment
- Housekeeping and hygiene
- Waste and waste disposal
- Management of surplus food and products for animal feed
- Pest management
- Storage Facilities
- Dispatch and Transport
- Product design/development
- Product labelling
- Management of allergens
- Product authenticity, claims, and chain of custody
- Product packaging
- Product inspection, on-site product testing, and laboratory analysis
- Product release
- Pet food and animal feed
- Animal primary conversion
- Control of operations
- Labelling and pack control
- Quantity – weight, volume, and number control
- Calibration, control of measuring, and monitoring devices
- Training
- Personal hygiene
- Medical screening
- Protective clothing
Clause 8 – Production Risk Zones
- Layout, product flow, and segregation in high-risk, high-care, and ambient high-care zones
- Building fabric, equipment and maintenance, staff facilities, housekeeping and hygiene, waste and waste disposal, and protective clothing in high-risk and high-care zones
- The food safety plan – HACCP
- Approval and performance monitoring of manufacturers/packers of traded food products
- Specifications
- Product inspection and laboratory testing
- Product legality
- Traceability
How to Prepare for a BRC Audit
Since there are a lot of information and details to take into consideration to ensure an effective BRC audit, take note of the following tips:
- Prepare proper documentation and records that prove the consistent implementation of food safety management. This will show that a business is indeed meeting the requirements to get certified for the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety
- Review and be familiar with the latest BRC version
- Conduct internal audits in order to identify gaps and improve on them
- Get in touch with a third-party auditor who will conduct the BRC audit for certification
- Leverage new technology such as software and digital checklists to perform audits
FAQs About BRC Food Safety
BRC stands for the British Retail Consortium, a company formed by retailers which created a standard for food safety intended for businesses involved in food production.
BRC certification is a recognition given to businesses that have been audited and found to have met the BRC global standard for food safety.
Both schemes require a regularly evaluated and continuously improved upon: 1) food safety management system; 2) good manufacturing, distribution, and agricultural practices; and 3) HACCP system.
BRC is more prescriptive on procedures and guidelines to follow for food safety while FSSC 22000 emphasizes a framework approach—helping a business implement its own system. FSSC 22000 expands upon ISO 22000, so for organizations already down this path, it may make sense to continue with FSSC 22000 certification.
Performing Food Safety Audits Using SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor)
SafetyCulture can help streamline your data capture and recordkeeping requirements for an effective BRC audit preparation. This mobile app lets you conduct paperless food safety inspections onsite and helps you comply with other international standards, such as ISO 22000 and Codex Alimentarius. With SafetyCulture, you can easily do the following:
- Attach photo evidence and key findings gathered during inspections
- Identify non-conformance and tag them as issues for immediate response
- Create corrective actions and categorize them according to the level of priority
- View audit trends anytime using the Analytics feature
- Export and share BRC audit reports as a weblink, PDF, Word, or CSV
To save you time, we have created these digital templates you can download and customize for free to assist with your BRC food certification requirements.
Top Digital BRC Food Safety Audit Checklists
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 2: The Food Safety Plan - HACCP
This is the second clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 3: Food Safety and Quality Management System
This is the third clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 4: Site Standards
This is the fourth clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 5: Product Control
This is the fifth clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 6: Process Control
This is the sixth clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 7: Personnel
This is the seventh clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 8: Production Risk Zones
This is the eighth clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
Global Standard Food Safety, BRC Issue 9 Audit - Clause 9: Traded Products
This is the ninth clause of the nine audit templates. This tool is designed to help you assess your operation against the requirements of the Standard and help prepare you for your certification audit. It can be used as part of your internal audit process and on it'/s own does not solely demonstrate the internal audit. Completing this template does not certify you against the standards. This should be by an external body.
HACCP Plan Template
Use this HACCP plan template to evaluate how your system identifies and controls food safety hazards. You can use this template to:
- Identify the Critical Control Point/s (CCP) and name hazards.
- Record the procedures you will follow if a critical limit is exceeded
- Generate and save reports on the spot.
Supplier Audit Checklist
This supplier audit checklist can be used to audit supplier facility. The template can serve as a guide for the inspector to evaluate the following areas:
- Management Responsibility
- Sanitation, handling and storage, infrastructure, maintenance, etc.
- HACCP and Regulatory compliance
GMP Food Manufacturing
This GMP food manufacturing audit template was based on 21 CFR Part 110. This can help as a guide when conducting food manufacturing audits. Site Supervisors can use this to:
- Make sure that staff are trained on sanitary procedures and that equipment used and process & controls follow GMP.
- All SafetyCulture reports are secured in cloud storage and can be conveniently accessed anytime
GFSI Checklist (Self-Audit)
Use this GFSI Checklist to perform a self-audit of your organization and ensure that you adhere to the Global Food Safety Initiative Standards.