What BRCGS (BRC) certification means for your brand

BRCGS at British VitaTech: what we are putting in place

BRCGS Food Safety is the next certificate for our Leicester facility: BRCGS implementation under way, certification expected in early 2027. We are extending the food safety and quality systems behind our BSI certificates to the standard's full requirements. For the custom and private label supplements we make for premium wellness brands, BRCGS adds the graded, GFSI-recognised certificate that retail buyers ask for when they approve a supplier, and that lets distributors and export partners trust a site they have never visited. Once we are certified, your QA team can add our certificate, grade and scope to your supplier approval file.

What BRCGS is and what the BRC standard covers

BRCGS, formerly BRC Global Standards, owns the Global Standard Food Safety, the food safety standard that began with UK retailers through the British Retail Consortium. That history is why many buyers still call it "BRC". The BRCGS Food Safety standard gives food manufacturing, processing and packing sites a framework to manage product safety, integrity, legality and quality. BRCGS says it has been adopted by over 22,000 sites in more than 130 countries, and that it was the first standard to be GFSI benchmarked. As of October 2026, Issue 9 is the current version.

GFSI benchmarking

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a CEO-led coalition within The Consumer Goods Forum, benchmarks food safety certification programmes against its Benchmarking Requirements. GFSI does not certify sites itself. It recognises programmes whose requirements and audit rules meet its benchmark, and many buyers then accept certificates issued under those programmes. GFSI announced its recognition of BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 in August 2024. Other GFSI-recognised programmes include FSSC 22000, IFS Food and SQF.

What a BRC audit covers

A BRCGS Food Safety audit is carried out by a certification body that BRCGS approves, and every audit includes an inspection on site. The requirements run from senior management commitment and food safety culture through the HACCP-based food safety plan, the food safety and quality management system, site standards, product control, process control and personnel, with further sections for high-risk, high-care and ambient high-care production zones and for traded products. Some requirements are designated fundamental, including senior management commitment, the HACCP food safety plan, supplier management and traceability.

Grades and unannounced audits

The certification body grades each audit by the number and severity of non-conformities, which are classed as critical, major or minor in the Issue 9 audit protocol. A critical non-conformity, or a major non-conformity against the intent of a fundamental requirement, means no certificate.

Every site must have at least one unannounced audit every three years, and the site is not told the date in advance. Sites can also choose the unannounced programme for every audit. Unannounced audits carry a plus grade, such as AA+. A first certification audit always takes place on site: the blended option, which moves part of the audit to a remote review of documents and records, is open only to announced recertification audits.

BRC accreditation or BRCGS certification?

Many people search for "BRC accreditation", but sites are certificated, not accredited. A certification body audits the site and issues the certificate. National accreditation bodies, such as UKAS in the UK, accredit the certification bodies, and BRCGS approves them to audit against its standards. The BRCGS Directory, the official database of audits against BRCGS standards, offers a public certificate search for currently certificated sites, and each site decides who can see its full audit report.

What it means for your brand: why retailers ask for BRCGS certification

Retailers and brand owners use GFSI-recognised certificates to approve suppliers without auditing every site themselves. BRCGS describes its standard as "accepted by leading global brands and retailers", and says it set out to create a common standard that could reduce duplication and improve consistency. One audit, recognised by many buyers, replaces a stream of separate customer audits.

• Retail and own-label listings: retailers in the UK and internationally ask suppliers for a GFSI-recognised certificate during supplier approval, and BRCGS has its roots in UK retail.
• Distributors and export partners: GFSI recognition lets a distributor trust a site it has never visited.
• Your own due diligence: a graded, independently audited certificate, with unannounced audits built in, strengthens your supplier approval file.
• Performance, not just a pass: the grade tells a buyer how the site performed at its last audit.

Read the scope as closely as the grade. A certificate covers a site and the products named in its scope, which may not include every one of the supplement formats you plan to launch.

How BRCGS fits with ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP

ISO 9001 certifies a quality management system in any sector. HACCP and GMP certification confirms the food safety controls and hygiene practices behind the products in its scope. BRCGS combines HACCP, prerequisite programmes and quality management into one prescriptive food safety standard, graded, with unannounced audits, and benchmarked by GFSI. A retail buyer reads them together: the certificates, their scopes and, for BRCGS, the grade.

How it works at our facility

Our status: BRCGS implementation under way, certification expected in early 2027. British VitaTech is already ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP certified by BSI, and FDA registered, so BRCGS implementation builds on systems that run every shift. Our page on quality and accreditations sets out each certificate and its scope.

• Food safety plan: a HACCP study for each product type, reviewed annually and on any significant change, with label verification on every batch as the critical control point.
• Supplier approval: no material from an unapproved source, with suppliers risk assessed by criticality, country of origin, food safety risk and history, and reviewed annually or immediately after a non-conformance.
• Allergen management: all 14 regulated allergens mapped in an allergen matrix, yellow colour coding for equipment that contacts allergens, allergen zones, and cleaning verified by visual check, swabbing or allergen test kit.
• Traceability: any batch, order, goods-in record, product, supplier or customer opens the whole chain in seconds, including a full mock recall with mass balance.
• Corrective action: non-conformances closed only with QA and Operations sign-off.
• Product control: every batch tested by accredited partner laboratories and released by quality control against its specification, with three retained samples kept for shelf life plus one year, as our page on supplement testing and batch release explains.

Implementation extends this system to the full BRCGS requirements, including a food safety culture plan led by senior management, a vulnerability assessment of raw materials for fraud, and site security and food defence. Our digital quality platform records every stage as it happens, so the evidence an auditor asks for exists the moment a batch is made.

Documentation you receive

Today, brands receive copies of our BSI certificates for ISO 9001 (FS 822806) and HACCP and GMP (HACCP 827076), a HACCP summary and a worked traceability example, shared under confidentiality. These give your buyer the evidence behind our current certificates while BRCGS implementation completes. With every order you also receive the product specification, quality control batch release and a certificate of analysis from our accredited partner laboratories for every batch.

Once certification is achieved, our BRCGS certificate, grade, scope and audit report will be available to your QA team on request. A typical retail supplier approval file asks a manufacturer for:

• certificate copies with scope and expiry dates;
• the latest audit grade and confirmation that non-conformities are closed;
• a HACCP summary for the product type;
• allergen information and a traceability example;
• product liability insurance: ours is £5m product liability insurance with worldwide cover.

We complete your supplier approval questionnaire with the evidence behind each answer, and your QA team, or your retailer's auditor, can audit our Leicester facility before you list.

Learn more about British VitaTech, or Start your project and ask for our quality pack with your brief.

What comes next: certification and Issue 10

Our certification audit comes next. As of October 2026, sites are audited against Issue 9, and BRCGS is developing Issue 10. When a new issue is published, BRCGS sets an audit start date. We build the new requirements into our system ahead of that date and brief your QA team on any change that affects your products.

References: BRCGS, Global Standard Food Safety, Issue 9 (2022); BRCGS, Food Safety Issue 9, Part III audit protocol (2022); GFSI, recognition of BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 against Benchmarking Requirements v2020 (2024); BRCGS Directory, public certificate search (2026); BSI Client Directory, certificates FS 822806 and HACCP 827076 (2025)