First published in 1998, the standard helps food manufacturers focus on a wide range of areas including HACCP, traceability, food fraud prevention, management commitment, and food safety culture. There has been a year-on-year increase in the recognition of the Standard, which has seen it become the largest global food safety programme.
The revision and evolution of our Standards are at the heart of our work. By reviewing our standards, we can ensure that they incorporate the latest industry trends and operations, practical experiences and best practices from the industry. The revision process enables us to take into account the changing expectations, regulatory requirements and consumer needs. It provides the opportunity to build on the value that our customers and stakeholders gain from the use of our Standards. This value was confirmed in a recent study carried out by the University of Birkbeck.
BRCGS’s Food Safety Standard, which impacts on over US$800bn of product sales, was the first standard to be GFSI benchmarked, as well as introduce food safety culture requirements, define food fraud, and reduce audit burden through additional modules. BRCGS applies a compliance programme to ensure consistent audit outcomes and results that brands can rely on. The Standard is now used by 30,000 sites in 130 countries, and accepted by 70% of the top 10 global retailers, 60% of the top 10 quick-service restaurants, and 50% of the top 25 manufacturers.
A revision of the Standard is underway, which has gathered comments from national and international stakeholders representing food manufacturers, Regulators, retailers, food service companies, brand owners, certification bodies and independent technical experts. This has allowed a working group to produce a draft standard which is now open for public comment.
| Download Draft Standard | Download Comments Template |
Stakeholders are encouraged to consider the draft and provide feedback on both the proposed requirements and the audit protocol, by email, to enquiries@brcgs.com using the comments template provided.
The closing date for submission of feedback is 12th January 2022.
Timeline
As with all revisions of the Global Standards, there must be a transition period between consultation, publication of the complete, finalised Standard and full implementation of the Standard. Therefore:
- Issue 9 will be published in August 2022
- Certification against Issue 9 will commence in audits from 1 February 2023.