6 replies to this topic

[mimib]

Has anyone else been notified by their Certification Body (CB) that BRCGS is requiring report writing to be a minimum of one (1) day?

 

From a perspective CB: "We’ve been notified that starting January 1^st, 2026, per BRC rules, all audits should have a 1 day report writing instead of 0.5."

 

This could add ~$1000 additional to our cost.  I cannot find anything on the BRCGS website to corroborate.

 

....thoughts....?

[Ishau]

This is no longer the case.

It was in a position statement for Food Safety only (and did apply from 1 January 2026), however this was withdrawn a few days after publication.

So it may have been the case at the time of the email, however is not the case any longer.

[mimib]

Thanks, Ishau.

Unfortunately, this was just communicated to me today.

I posted here because I felt I would get a quicker response, but we are actually pursuing Packaging standard cert.

 

I will request the CB provide the communication they received from the BRCGS confirming their stance.

[GMO]

Why was it withdrawn?

 

Short report writing turnarounds just end up causing poor auditor behaviours.  Things like:

• Typing stuff up while they're still on site.
• Asking for time to "collect their thoughts" (they're doing the report while they're there.)
• Cut and paste from previous reports or using standard phrases.

0.5 days is pretty unrealistic.  But if half a day is being charged at $1000 I tell you now, the auditor isn't seeing anywhere near that for an additional half day's work.

[KTD]

There are a couple issues here that I see:

1. As GMO mentioned, the auditors only see a slice of the total charges for an audit. I have an auditor friend who conducts a variety of audits. In order to make a living, he schedules 2 or even 3 audits a week at times and then finalizes the reports over the weekend. The cert bodies, standard developers, and GFSI appear to be cleaning up.
2. In the US poultry arena, GFSI-based audits are a requirement by our customers. Yet, many customers still: a) conduct their own audits that they frequently charge us for; b) require the electronic submission of reams of documents and multiple questionnaires; and/or c) have audit addendums to GFSI-based audits that add to the cost - 8 questions rephrased from the main audit...$100. So, $1,000 here and $1,000 there starts to add up.

US poultry plants have USDA FSIS inspection personnel in them every day during all production shifts. I personally do not see where GFSI-based audits have saved this industry any time or money or brought significant food safety or quality benefits to the consumer.

 

[climbing off my high horse now]

[GMO]

I think it's a separate thread but GFSI had a purpose (or the standards that make it up do) but that purpose is now lost.  At least for sites who are well on the journey on compliance because that's ALL it encourages; compliance.  Not actually doing it for the right reason.  You can risk assess so much away on some GFSI standards which actually is a risk.

 

Anyway, soapbox also dismounted.

 

Back to the topic.  I do some auditing, albeit limited.  Generally I can type super fast.  And I always use the evening on day one to write up to that point.  Otherwise I'm not clear on what I've not covered for day 2, 3 etc.  As a result, when I get to the write up, it's not a huge hassle.  But some of these CBs have super restrictive systems which are stupidly time consuming to use.  Anyone who is a slow typist or cannot spend their evening doing it (e.g. childcare or other responsibilities) are frankly screwed.  I would never book back to back audits without having finished the write up personally.  I'd be too confused but I am getting old.

 

Fact is though even with the evening work etc I'm probably doing a day's work but in my own time.  Because for me there's no other way to do it.  There's no way I see a fraction of the money you're being quoted though and I only get paid 0.5 days for write up too.

[beautiophile]

Tight timelines encourage plagiarism?

Copy-and-paste helps that a lot. I heard that senior auditors could recoginise their writings in the other auditors' reports.

There were prolly complaints so they have changed from 0.5 to 1 day?

To be fair, the BRGCS standards become more complicated through out their evolution. It would take more time to prove the comprehensive conformity, IMO. My internal audit checklists now have more questions than before.