BRCGS Implementation and Audit Readiness
ASC Food Safety Consultants prepares South African manufacturers for BRCGS audit: choosing the right standard in the family, a clause by clause gap assessment, the food safety plan, site standards and product control, then a full internal audit. ASC is a consultancy and not a certification body.
Consulting is charged hourly. A full implementation is quoted on scope once ASC has seen the site and the size of the gap, and ASC will tell you before the quote if the work is smaller than you think.
BRCGS implementation and audit readiness consulting takes a site from where it stands today to the point where an accredited certification body can audit it. ASC works alongside your team rather than handing over documents: writing the food safety plan with the people who run the process, building the site standards, closing the physical gaps, and rehearsing the audit until each area owner can answer for their own work.
The trigger is usually commercial. A UK or EU retailer, or a local retail group buying to the same expectations, has made a GFSI recognised certificate a condition of supply and named BRCGS. Hygiene systems built for R638 of 22 June 2018 under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act 54 of 1972 are the legal floor here. The standard asks for a documented and verified system on top of that floor, and the distance between doing the right thing and proving it daily is where sites lose grade.
BRCGS also has a different character to FSSC 22000. It is prescriptive, stating clause by clause what it expects rather than leaving a site to decide what is appropriate. It names a subset of clauses as fundamental requirements. And it is graded, so the audit ends with a grade rather than a pass or a fail, and your customer reads that grade.
Key facts at a glance
When a business calls ASC in
- A retailer or buying office has made BRCGS certification a condition of supply, with a deadline the site cannot meet on its own.
- The site holds another scheme, usually FSSC 22000, and finds that BRCGS asks far more prescriptive questions about site standards and product control.
- A previous audit closed with a grade the customer will not accept, and the causes need fixing rather than papering over.
- The site has moved to an unannounced audit option and wants an honest answer on whether it would hold up tomorrow.
- A new factory, line or layout change has broken the assumptions the food safety plan was built on.
- The site is not yet ready for the full standard and wants a way in through the BRCGS START! programme.
How ASC works with you
Choosing the right standard, then reading the gap honestly
Scope placement comes first. BRCGS Food Safety applies to food manufacturing, BRCGS Packaging Materials to packaging that will meet food, BRCGS Storage and Distribution to warehousing, cold stores and transport, and BRCGS Agents and Brokers to businesses trading in product they do not manufacture. BRCGS START! is a stepping stone for sites not yet ready for the full standard. ASC confirms which standard applies, then runs a clause by clause gap assessment. Confirm the applicable issue, and any transition dates, with your certification body before the system is written.
Building the system, from the food safety plan to product control
The food safety plan follows Codex HACCP principles: a trained team, product descriptions and intended use, flow diagrams verified on the floor, hazard analysis for biological, chemical, physical and allergen hazards, critical control points with validated limits, monitoring, corrective action and verification. The site standards sit around it: layout and product flow that keep raw and ready to eat apart, cleanable fabric, hygienically designed equipment, maintenance that is not itself a contamination route, hygiene schedules with cleaning validated rather than assumed, waste control, and pest management owned by the site. Contamination control gets the same detail: glass and hard plastic registers with breakage procedures, sharps, wood, foreign body detection verified at set frequencies, and segregated chemical storage.
Product control covers design and development, with process and shelf life validated before launch; allergen management from raw material to label, with cross contact assessed at every stage and cleaning validated for removal; provenance and authenticity, meaning a vulnerability assessment for adulteration and substitution and evidence behind every claim on the pack, which locally must satisfy R146 of 1 March 2010; packaging suitability; and product inspection and laboratory testing. Where the validation behind a shelf life or a product claim does not exist, ASC produces it under food science and technology support. Process control and personnel close it out: quantity control, calibration, training built on competence rather than attendance, personal hygiene, protective clothing, and medical screening for staff, contractors and visitors.
Internal audit, culture and unannounced readiness
Senior management commitment is a requirement in its own right, and an auditor tests it directly: who chairs the management review, what the food safety objectives are, whether resources were released when the system asked for them, and how the site measures and improves its food safety culture. The internal audit programme covers every clause and area across the year, audited by competent people independent of the work. ASC runs a full BRCGS internal audit over three days on site, presents findings to management on the last day, and issues the written report within two weeks of the closing meeting. Under an unannounced option readiness becomes a daily condition: records signed on the day, hygiene at audit standard mid shift, and the HACCP team able to speak to their own plan without rehearsal.
What you receive
| Deliverable | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Gap assessment report | Clause by clause assessment against the applicable standard, each gap rated for severity with the action, owner and target date, plus a view on the full standard against entry through BRCGS START! |
| Food safety plan and HACCP file | Team records, product descriptions, verified flow diagrams, hazard analysis with justification, critical control point determination, validated limits, monitoring and corrective action procedures, and the verification schedule. |
| Site standards pack | Layout, zoning and product flow assessment, fabric and equipment condition schedules, hygiene and maintenance schedules with cleaning validation, waste and pest controls, and the glass, hard plastic and foreign body registers. |
| Product and process control documents | Design and development protocol, allergen management plan, vulnerability assessment for authenticity, claim substantiation, packaging evidence, inspection and testing schedules, calibration and quantity control. |
| Internal audit programme and report | Annual schedule covering every clause and area, auditor competence records, the three day internal audit on site, findings presented on the last day, and the report within two weeks. |
| Audit readiness pack | Traceability and recall exercise, a mock audit to the standard’s own protocol, interview preparation for the people the auditor will speak to, and a prioritised action list closed out first. |
Everything you need for BRCGS, in one place
Consulting is one route. The ASC toolkits give you the documents, the online courses train your team, and the library explains the standard before you commit.
Do it yourself
Editable ASC document toolkits and templates, built by the same auditors who run the audits.
Train your team
Accredited online courses on ascfoodsafetytraining.com, studied at your own pace with certificates on completion.
Read first
Free guidance from the ASC library, written for South African food businesses.
Who this work suits
This work suits manufacturers supplying UK and EU retailers, and local retail groups buying to the same expectations: meat and poultry processors, dairies, bakeries, ready meal producers, beverage plants, snack and confectionery manufacturers, spice and dry blending operations, and seafood processors on the Eastern Cape and Western Cape coasts. Packaging manufacturers, cold stores, distribution operators and agents and brokers fall under their own standards in the same family.
ASC is led by Mthokozisi Nkosi, a SAATCA registered lead auditor. ASC is a FoodBev SETA Accredited Provider No. 587/00337/1900 and is B-BBEE Level 1. Consulting is charged hourly, and a full BRCGS implementation is a project running over days or weeks, so it is quoted on scope once ASC has seen the site and the size of the gap.
Where ASC stops
ASC is not a certification body. ASC does not certify anyone, does not award a certificate against BRCGS or any other scheme, and cannot guarantee a grade or a certification result. The certification decision belongs to an accredited certification body after its own third party audit, and that separation is what allows ASC to prepare you honestly rather than comfortably. The choice of certification body, the booking and the outcome sit with you and with them.
Frequently asked questions
Which BRCGS standard applies to our site?
It follows the activity rather than the industry. A food factory is audited against BRCGS Food Safety, a converter making film or cartons against BRCGS Packaging Materials, a cold store or logistics operation against BRCGS Storage and Distribution, and a business arranging supply without manufacturing against BRCGS Agents and Brokers. Sites doing more than one sometimes need two certificates.
What is a fundamental requirement, and what happens if we fail one?
BRCGS marks certain clauses as fundamental because they carry systems a credible food safety programme cannot function without, among them senior management commitment, the HACCP based food safety plan, internal audit, traceability, product flow, hygiene and supplier management. A serious failure against one is treated far more severely than an ordinary non conformity and can prevent certification at that audit, so ASC proves those clauses first and revisits them last. The grade follows from the number and severity of non conformities raised, so ask your certification body for the grading table that applies to your audit.
We already hold FSSC 22000. How much of it transfers?
More than sites expect, and less than they hope. FSSC 22000 is built on ISO 22000:2018 with a prerequisite programme specification such as ISO 22002-1 and additional requirements, and it leaves much of the how to the site to justify. Management system architecture, HACCP work, traceability and supplier controls carry across with editing. The real work sits in the prescriptive detail: site standards and fabric, contamination and foreign body control, claim substantiation, protective clothing, medical screening, and the records behind them.
Should we take the announced or the unannounced audit option?
Announced audits are booked for a known date, which lets a site plan production and finish outstanding actions. Unannounced audits fall within an agreed window with no confirmed date, and customers read them as stronger evidence because nothing can be staged. ASC advises building for unannounced conditions whichever option you choose, because a system that only works when the date is known will eventually be audited on a day it does not.
What happens if the certification audit still raises findings?
Some will. An audit that raises nothing at all is unusual, and the certification body is entitled to see things ASC did not. What ASC works to prevent is a finding against a requirement it built, and a finding the site cannot close inside the certification body’s deadline. ASC stays available while findings are closed, works each one back to a root cause rather than patching it, and gathers the closure evidence in the form the auditor asked for. ASC cannot guarantee the outcome, because the decision belongs to the certification body, and any consultant who guarantees it is telling you something they cannot deliver.
Would your site hold up to a BRCGS audit tomorrow?
Tell ASC which standard your customer has named, when the audit needs to happen and what the site looks like today. A short conversation is usually enough to say whether this is a focused piece of work or a full implementation project.
Not ready for a quote? Use Where Do I Start to see which standard your market actually needs, or book a virtual consultation.