Food Safety Standard

Additional modules can be added to the standard audit process, offering valuable benefits for customers:

• Reduce audit burden and cost by covering requirements that would previously have needed a separate audit, such as second-party audits.

• Meet specific geographic or customer requirements, particularly where a brand owner or specifier needs additional criteria to complement the Standard.

• Address particular operational needs or explore key market concerns in greater detail, such as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) or organisational food safety culture.

Sites wishing to adopt an additional module must notify their chosen certification body before their next BRCGS audit.

• The standard and any additional module requirements are audited together. This may extend the audit duration, depending on the module’s requirements.

• Non-conformities for both the standard and the additional module will be identified during the audit. However, non-conformities raised against the additional module are not included in the standard’s assessment or grade.

• Non-conformities relating to the additional module must be addressed with supporting evidence provided alongside evidence for any non-conformities raised against the standard.

• Additional modules are not graded - they are assessed on a pass/fail basis.

Additional modules are available in two forms:

• Public modules are included in the BRCGS audit report and shown in the public section of the BRCGS Directory.

• Private modules are based on the requirements of a specific company or customer and uploaded to a separate area of the BRCGS Directory, visible only to the audited site and, where applicable, the named customer.

There are three additional modules relevant to the Food Safety standard:

• Module 10 GlobalG.A.P. Chain of Custody

• Module 11: Meat Supply Chain Assurance (2026 version)

• Module 13: Meeting FSMA Requirements for Food

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) represents the most significant reform of US food safety laws in over 70 years. It aims to keep the US food supply safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.

The law gives the FDA greater enforcement powers to improve compliance with prevention- and risk-based food safety standards, and to respond to and contain issues when they arise. It also provides tools to ensure imported foods meet the same standards as domestic foods and requires the FDA to work with state and local authorities to build an integrated national food safety system.

When FSMA was introduced, BRCGS commissioned The Acheson Group (TAG) to compare Food Safety, Issue 9 with the final Preventive Controls for Human Food rule. TAG found that the BRCGS Food Safety standard is almost fully aligned with FSMA expectations.

BRCGS supports certified sites with an e-learning module that helps businesses understand how to meet FSMA requirements. Our Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Controls (HARPC) training course also explains the similarities and differences between the BRCGS Food Safety standard and the FDA’s Preventive Controls rule. This course does not replace the FDA’s Preventive Controls course.

During the lifetime of a published standard, the BRCGS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) may be asked to review the wording of a clause or provide an interpretation of a requirement or a detail of the protocol. The decision made by the TAC is known as a position statement.

Position statements are binding and are considered to be an extension of the standard. Certified sites need to be aware of any statements relating to a standard and, where necessary, ensure that information is transferred into action.

Position statements are published on our website and on Participate. You can find out when a new statement has been published by signing up to the BRCGS newsletter.

BRCGS publishes self-assessment checklists for each standard providing a practical way to assess your operation against the standard requirements. This helps you build confidence ahead of your certification audit.

Covering every requirement of the standard, it helps you undertake a gap analysis of your level of compliance with the option to add comments and highlight improvement opportunities as you go.

Self-assessment checklists are published in a range of languages.

BRCGS Food Safety audit duration is calculated using a standardised audit duration calculator, helping ensure a consistent and reliable approach.

The calculator has been developed and reviewed using insight from the first audits against the current issue, international feedback from certification bodies and frequently asked questions.