BRCGS Food Safety Standard Issue 9 Has Been Published

After an extensive process that started in May 2021 which incorporates the most up-to-date trends and industry needs, BRCGS published Issue 9 of its Food Safety Standard on August 1. Assessments against the new version of the standard will be mandatory from February 1st, 2023 onwards. Around 30,000 sites currently certified globally will have a transition period of six months to prepare their food safety systems to be audited against the new version’s requirements.

NSF’s Senior Director for Global Supply Chain, Sarah Krol, commented about the new version: “NSF recognizes the effort and collaboration required to finalize BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 and we congratulate BRCGS and all stakeholders on this important milestone. Never has it been more important for standards to evolve and keep pace with emerging food safety issues and industry trends.”

An organization that achieves a BRCGS Global Food Safety certification is confirming its commitment and competence in providing safe, quality food for its consumers and stakeholders, with an up-to-date standard that tackles key areas in food safety, expectations, regulatory requirements and consumer needs.

Emily Varnon, BRCGS Technical Scheme Lead at NSF, commented on the main changes in Issue 9: “Updates are expected in clauses related to HACCP and food safety plans, food defense and food safety culture, and how sites are managed regarding factory layout, flow of processes, and use of the space by employees to prevent the risk of product contamination and to maintain compliance with relevant legislation, among others. The issue integrates food safety culture in key areas of the standard and emphasizes the importance of employee behaviour in designing and implementing food safety systems.”

• Food safety plans need to be validated before implementation or prior to any changes that could affect product safety
• Food safety culture continues to be an important part of the standard
• Site management
• Risk base planning
• Root cause analysis
• Food defense
• Animal Primary Conversion/ Animal Feed Production
• Unannounced audit mandated
• Blended audit – hybrid

• Stay tuned for our series of webinars to help you understand the new version to prepare your company for the audit, delivered in multiple languages
• Training courses to the new version such as BRCGS for Food Safety Issue 9: Conversion for Sites, BRCGS Food Safety Issue 8 to 9 Conversion for Auditors and BRCGS Internal Auditor.
• Gap Analysis – our experts can look at your current system and identify areas to improve and meet the issue 9 requirements.

Step 1: Learn about the standard. You can download the standard and the interpretation guidelines from BRCGS’ website.

Step 2: Contact the NSF team for an informative session about the standard and your options for certification and training. Our team can guide you on next steps and receiving a quote.

Step 3: Book a training course with NSF to learn about the new requirements and their scope, the audit process, and more (optional).

Step 4: You can book an optional pre-assessment (gap analysis) with NSF.

Step 5: Secure your dates and close the deal! Select NSF as your audit certification body. We are a five-star-rated BRCGS certification body ready to work with you globally.