BRC Global Standards

Standards

British Retail Consortium food safety and quality certification — required by UK and EU retail buyers.

Sources

1. BRCGS — Global Standard Food Safety brcgs.com accessed 23 September 2026

BRCGS is the issuing body and the Global Standard Food Safety is its principal food standard — “now in its 9th issue”, and on the body’s own account “adopted by over 22,000 sites in more than 130 countries” and “accepted by leading global brands and retailers”. What it does is broader than its name suggests: it “provides a framework to manage product safety, integrity, legality and quality, and the operational controls for these criteria in the food and food ingredient manufacturing, processing and packing industry.” BRCGS claims several firsts — the first standard to be GFSI benchmarked, and the first to introduce food safety culture requirements and to define food fraud. Note what this entry does not do: the standard itself is sold rather than published, so nothing is quoted from it here, and a supplier audit turns on the issue of the standard your customer specifies.

What this source settles. Where a government or an intergovernmental body is cited, the page is authoritative for the regime it administers and for the figures it publishes about itself. Where a standards body is cited, the entry names the body and describes the standard’s role, but quotes nothing from a text that is sold rather than published. In every case the operative document — the Act, the order, the manual, the issue of the standard your contract names — governs over any summary of it.

Related terms

• FSSC 22000
• Halal Certification
• IATF 16949
• IFS Food Standard
• ISO 13485
• ISO 22000

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).