Your First Step in the Journey to Full BRCGS Food Safety Certification

BRCGS START! logoBRCGS START! with FoodChain ID Certification provides your SME food manufacturing business with the opportunity to appear on the BRCGS Directory.

Achieving full certification to the BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety can be challenging for some smaller food production companies. BRCGS START! is an effective stepping stone to achieving full BRCGS Food Safety Certification. BRCGS Food Safety Certification is a recognized GFSI certification standard, accepted by most retailers and food businesses worldwide.

Key Benefits to BRCGS START! with FoodChain ID Certification

Adoption of the program leads to a number of benefits to the food business.

The program:

  • is aligned with the GFSI Global Markets program (the full Standard is GFSI-benchmarked)
  • provides a clearly defined audit and certification process operated in accordance with the requirements of accreditation
  • uses auditors that meet the demanding competency requirements of BRCGS Global Standards
  • enables companies achieving basic and intermediate levels to appear in the publicly available part of the BRCGS Global Standards Directory, thereby recognizing their achievements
  • uses requirements based on the Standard, enabling the basic and intermediate levels to provide effective stepping stones towards full certification (if required by customers)
  • requires completion of corrective actions on any non-conformities before certification at the basic or intermediate level is awarded, thus reducing the need for customers to follow up audit reports

Companies may choose to be audited to either Basic or Intermediate level. The Basic level focuses on food safety and legality. The Intermediate level starts to introduce more quality management system elements and builds upon the Basic level requirements of food safety and legality to provide more comprehensive controls on food safety.

The START! Program is designed to encourage continual improvement and assist sites in developing their food safety systems to a point where they can achieve full certification. All the clauses at the Basic and Intermediate levels of the START! Program are the same as or closely derived from the clauses in the full BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety.

All companies successfully passing an audit with FoodChain ID Certification to either Basic or Intermediate levels will be able to take advantage of appearing on the industry renowned BRCGS Directory and be issued with a certificate.

Basic level
The requirements are designed to ensure legal compliance as a minimum and are equivalent to or exceed the requirements of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) basic level.

Intermediate level
The requirements build upon legal compliance to include more detailed requirements, an expansion of the HACCP process and the development of a quality management system.

Not sure whether to go for the Basic or Intermediate food safety audit? Click Here to Get in Touch and FoodChain ID Certification will provide you with enough information on both options to enable you to make the best-informed choice for your situation.

For more information on how the program can be beneficial to you, or to book your first audit Contact FoodChain ID Certification who provide BRCGS START! audits worldwide.

BRCGS Participate is a managed, subscription-based, online service that subscribers can access to view content.

Download PDFs of the BRCGS Global Standards and access Interpretation Guidelines and supporting publications online, selecting your language of choice where translations are available.

For more information, please visit www.brcgsparticipate.com

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