The British Retail Consortium (BRC) standards set the benchmark for excellence in the food industry, guiding organizations toward stringent yet essential practices. Central to ensuring compliance with these standards are BRC audits. Conducted by accredited auditors, these audits scrutinize various aspects of a company’s operations, spanning from production processes to facility hygiene.
Comprehending the nuances of BRC audits is non-negotiable if you aim to guarantee compliance with established benchmarks. BRC audits also solidify consumer trust – a crucial factor in today’s discerning market landscape.
BRC audit checklists are useful tools to assess how ready you are for external audits, find non-conformities, address them, and prevent them from recurring. Let’s dive into how these checklists make audits easier and increase your chances of successful BRC certification.
What are BRC Audit Checklists & Why You Should Use Them?
As a food business owner, ensuring the safety and quality of your products is paramount. Achieving this requires a robust food safety management system and regular audits to assess compliance with industry standards. That’s where BRC audit checklists come into play.
BRC audit checklists provide a standardized framework for evaluating your food safety management system against the requirements of the BRC Global Standard for Food Safety. They cover a wide range of critical components, each designed to evaluate specific aspects of your food safety management system.
Here’s how using BRC audit checklists can benefit your business:
- Comprehensive Coverage
BRC audit checklists cover every aspect of your food safety management system, from raw material sourcing to product distribution. It ensures that no critical areas are overlooked, reducing the risk of food safety hazards and non-compliance.
- Preparation for External Audits
Regular internal audits using BRC checklists help you identify and address any gaps or non-conformances in your food safety system before external audits. It enhances your chances of passing external audits, avoiding costly delays, and maintaining your reputation.
- Evidence of Internal Audits
The records of your internal audits using BRC checklists serve as valuable evidence of your commitment to food safety and compliance. These records can be shared with external auditors, demonstrating your proactive approach to food safety management.
- Improved Audit Efficiency
Using BRC audit checklists streamlines the audit process, saving you time and resources. It ensures that auditors can efficiently assess your system, reducing the disruption to your operations.
- Continuous Improvement
BRC checklists help you identify areas for improvement within your food safety management system. By addressing these areas, you can continuously enhance your food safety practices and meet the evolving demands of the industry.
Free BRC Audit Checklists to Download
BRC Issue 9 was launched on 01 August 2022. The 9th Edition of BRC consists of nine components. These include senior management commitment, a food safety plan – HACCP, food safety and quality management system, site standards, product control, process control, personnel, production in high-risk zones, and traded product requirements.
The checklists below cover all nine aspects of BRC Version 9.
BRC Audit Checklist Management Commitment (Clause 1)
You can evaluate your organization’s senior management commitment and continuous improvement strategies with this comprehensive BRC audit checklist for senior management commitment. It serves as the initial step in the BRC Global Food Safety Standard – Issue 9, focusing on key aspects like senior management dedication, organizational structure, and responsibilities. This checklist helps you streamline your internal audits for a seamless assessment in readiness for the third-party BRC certification audit.
BRC Audit Checklist Food Safety Plan HACCP (Clause 2)
This checklist helps you assess your operation’s adherence to the BRC Global Food Safety Standard – Issue 9, particularly focusing on the crucial elements of the food safety plan and HACCP. This checklist includes a wide range of essentials, including the establishment of a monitoring system for each CCP, validation of the HACCP plan, prerequisite programs, and identification of potential hazards. Other areas covered include the establishment of a corrective action plan and HACCP documentation and recordkeeping.
BRC Audit Checklist Food Safety & Quality Management System (Clause 3)
With this food safety and quality management checklist, you can assess several crucial aspects. These include specifications, corrective actions, control of non-conforming products, traceability, complaints handling, and supplier management. This checklist comprehensively covers vital areas within your quality management system. Implementing these measures will enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your food safety practices.
BRC Audit Checklist Site Standards (Clause 4)
This site audit checklist ensures compliance with site standards set by the BRC Global Food Safety Standard – Issue 9. This checklist helps you evaluate various key areas, including housekeeping, pest management, storage facilities, maintenance, equipment, staff facilities, and external standards.
BRC Audit Checklist Product Control (Clause 5)
This product control audit checklist helps you evaluate your product-related procedures. These include design, labeling, allergen management, packaging, testing, release, and more. Other areas this checklist covers include product authenticity, product inspection, and pet food and animal feed inspections. Adhering to these guidelines will help you deliver safe and accurately labeled products to your customers.
BRC Audit Checklist Process Control (Clause 6)
This process control audit checklist helps you assess your operations against the requirements of the BRC Global Food Safety Standard – Issue 9. This checklist covers key areas, including control of operations, labeling and packing control, quantity, calibration, monitoring, and more. By implementing these controls, you can ensure consistent product quality and accuracy throughout your operations.
BRC Audit Checklist Personnel (Clause 7)
With this personnel audit checklist, you can evaluate your personnel’s training, hygiene practices, medical screening, and protective measures. This checklist helps you ensure compliance with BRC standards, particularly focusing on raw material handling, processing, and storage areas. Ensuring your staff adheres to these standards will minimize the risk of contamination.
BRC Audit Checklist Production Risk Zones (Clause 8)
This production risk zone audit checklist focuses on high-risk zones within your facility, such as its layout, product flow, segregation to avoid contamination, equipment maintenance, and hygiene practices. It also helps you evaluate other aspects crucial in high-risk and high-care zones. These include building fabric, staff facilities, waste storage and disposal, and protective clothing. By managing these areas effectively, you can prevent potential hazards and ensure product safety.
BRC Audit Checklist Traded Products (Clause 9)
This BRC audit checklist for trade products helps you assess your management of traded food products, including traceability, food safety plans, performance monitoring, specifications, testing, and legality. Compliance with these requirements will enable you to maintain the integrity and safety of your traded products.
Implementing these checklists is only a part of the compliance process. Let’s dive into how the right software can simplify compliance with global food safety standards.
BRC Software: Simplify BRC Compliance
BRC audit software assists food businesses in effectively managing and monitoring their compliance with the BRC Global Standard. They offer a range of features that simplify the compliance process:
- Mobile Accessibility
With mobile-friendly BRC audit software, everyone in the team has the relevant checklists and SOPs available in their pocket, ready to review and fill in as frequently as needed. They can also receive notifications of scheduled self-audits to perform, view, and perform corrective actions on the go. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for on-site audits and real-time data collection.
- Centralized Documentation
BRC audit software provides a centralized platform for storing and managing all relevant documentation, including quality manuals, standard operating procedures, self-inspection records, and audit reports. This eliminates the hassle of searching through scattered files and ensures easy access to vital information during audits.
- Corrective Actions and Workflows
With BRC audit software, you can automate various compliance-related tasks, such as scheduling internal audits, assigning responsibilities, and tracking corrective actions. This automation streamlines processes, reduces manual workloads, and ensures the timely completion of compliance tasks.
- Real-Time Monitoring
BRC audit software helps real-time monitoring of compliance indicators, allowing you to proactively identify and quickly address any issues. This enables continuous improvement and helps prevent non-conformances during external audits.
- Comprehensive Reporting
The BRC software generates comprehensive reports that provide insights into compliance performance, audit outcomes, and trends. These reports empower you to make informed decisions, demonstrate compliance to stakeholders, and identify areas for improvement.
GoAudits – The Right Software for Your BRC Audits
GoAudits BRC audit software simplifies compliance with BRC Global Standards effortlessly for efficiency. Here’s why you should use the GoAudits food safety software.
- Monitor Food Safety and Quality Standards
With GoAudits, ensure the highest food safety, hygiene, and quality standards for your audits. Simplify inspections by capturing field details, including photos and annotations, offline across devices.
- Efficiency in Mobile Inspections
Go paperless with mobile inspections and professional instant reports and analytics. Track issues, assign tasks, and monitor resolutions efficiently through an interactive dashboard.
- Efficient Food Safety & Quality Inspections
Digitize internal audits—hygiene, process & quality reviews, restaurant visits, kitchen inspections, and personnel checks. Monitor compliance with HACCP, BRC, FSSC, and ISO standards.
- Documentation & Issue Resolution
Streamline issue documentation and resolution without complex training. Customize checklists effortlessly for your specific needs.
- 100% Visibility & Transparency
Gain insights into recurrent failures and top issues across sites and teams through real-time dashboards. Make informed decisions to elevate food standards and service levels.
Other Food Safety and Inspection Checklists
In addition to BRC checklists, GoAudits also offers a variety of other food safety checklists. These include the following:
- Food Safety & Hygiene Checklist
- Hygiene Standard Checklist
- GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) Audit
- HACCP Plan Checklist
- Food Manufacturing SOP
- Hygiene Checklist for Food Industry
- Personal Hygiene Checklist
- HACCP-Based SOPs
- HACCP Plan Self-Assessment Checklist
- HACCP Food Safety Checklist
- HACCP Internal Audit Checklist
- Food Hygiene Rating Checklist
- SQFI Quality Checklist
GoAudits helps you maintain top-notch food safety effortlessly. With easy inspections, efficient audits, simple documentation, and clear insights, it keeps your standards high and your processes smooth.
