A BRCGS (British Retail Consortium Global Standard) or BRC (British Retail Consortium) food safety audit is an international standard, implemented as a questionnaire, to check for compliance in food production.
BRC Certification is a GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) benchmarked standard.
The BRC Food Safety standard is used by food manufacturers, retailers and service providers around the world to assess their food safety management systems. By doing so, they’re able to demonstrate that they have an effective management system in place that ensures the safety of their products from source to shelf.
FoodReady BRC consultants and BRC software has all the components you need to get ready and stay ready for a BRC audit or GFSI certification. You can have a demonstration of our food safety software, have your questions answered and get pricing by scheduling a meeting here with one of our food safety experts.
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What are the Benefits of Achieving BRC Certification?
Having a BRC certification means that your business is manufacturing safe quality food products you can be proud of. BRC certification elevates your brand and because BRCGS certification is a GFSI benchmarked standard you can sell your products at large retailers such as Whole Foods, Walmart and with an added addendum, you can sell at Costco as well.
Preparing for a BRC audit is a daunting task. Make your work life a little easier by using FoodReady food safety software and consulting services. Check out our software and consulting features that will help you obtain BRC certification.
Our Food Safety and Quality Management Software features:
- Food Safety Expert Consultants
- Staff trained in GFSI benchmarked standards like SQF Certification, BRC Certification, HACCP creation and certification.
- One of the company’s founders is a GFSI benchmarked standards auditor and food safety expert with 25 years of experience.
- HACCP Builder
- 80+ HACCP / PCP Plan Templates.
- Biological / Chemical / Physical Hazards Database.
- Implement Critical Control Point (CCP) Logs with Bluetooth Thermometer Integration.
- Drag-drop flow chart builder.
- Operation Checklists
- Easy ‘Drag-Drop’ Checklist Builder with Custom Controls such as Conditional If / Then Logic, Multi-Select Drop Downs, Max-Min Temperature and Numeric Values, and more.
- Replace Excel Spreadsheets with “Grid View” Sheets available in the Mobile App.
- Task Scheduling & Notifications.
- Shipping and Receiving Logs and Inspections for Traceability.
- Quality Control Signature Workflows for Deviations & Corrections.
- Batch Management and Inventory Database
- Batch / Production Run Management With Associated CCP Logs and Quality & Food Safety Checklists.
- Recipe Formulation, Bill of Materials, and Lot Traceability Management.
- Track Quantity on Hand, Work in Progress, and minimum quantity alerts with Inventory Management.
- Purchase Order and Sales Order Management.
- Integration with Quickbooks™
- Traceability and Recall
- Recall Plan & Mock Recall Management.
- Product Complaint Tracking.
- Receiving & Shipping Lot Traceability and Sales Order and Purchase Order Tracking.
- Receiving GS1 Barcode Scanning.
- Automated Supplier Document Management
- Supplier Upload Portal
- Easily manage hundreds or thousands of required supplier documents in one place.
- Automatically emails suppliers with document requests.
- Save months of effort managing hundreds or thousands of files.
- Monitoring and Verification
- Real-time list of CCP logs and checklists for Management Review.
- Generate Corrective Action Reports and CAPA Logs to address Deviations.
- Real-Time Notifications if Monitoring Limits are breached or additional reviews are needed.
- Pairable with Thermoworks bluetooth thermometer for temperature monitoring.
- Environmental Monitoring
- Environmental Swabbing Documentation.
- Organize Areas, Zones, Locations, Indicators, Pathogens, and Testing Frequency.
- Testing Scheduler with Notifications and Reusable Templates.
- Integration with Alliant Food Safety Labs and other 3rd Party Laboratories.
- Cloud Based System with Mobile App
- Real-time updates from employee’s mobile apps visible on the web system at any location.
- English and Spanish versions of the mobile app.
- Compatible with Mac and Android
What are the 12 Fundamental Requirements of the BRC Standard?
The 12 main requirements you must follow for the BRC standard are listed below:
- Your senior management is committed to continually improving safety and quality.
- You have a detailed food safety plan in place. (HACCP, SQF, GMP)
- You conduct regular internal audits.
- You manage suppliers of raw materials and packaging.
- You have corrective and preventive actions in place.
- You track and document ingredients from suppliers for traceability.
- Your factory layout, flow of processes and movement of staff must be sufficient to prevent the risk of product contamination and to comply with relevant legislation.
- You employ appropriate and effective hygiene regulations.
- You carefully separate and contain all known allergens.
- You provide a facility layout, floor plan, and organization that is in compliance with your food safety plan.
- All your food products are correctly labeled and packaged.
- You provide sufficient food safety training for your employees that encompasses all areas of food production including but not limited to raw material handling, preparation, processing, packing and storage.
FoodReady is a food safety software and consulting company. Our software has a HACCP builder, food traceability, you can create your own checklists to manage your HACCP plan or track other items, ingredients, tasks, or events. With our Enterprise program you will have access to food safety quality assurance professionals who can help you with GFSI, SQF, GMP, SOP, BRC, CGMP, HACCP, USDA, FDA FSMA, gap analysis, or prepare for audits like the Costco audit, the Whole Foods audit, Publix audit, Kroger audit, Safeway audit, Meier audit, HEB audit and more.
