Introduction to BRCGS Plant-Based Issue 1 Course

About this course

The BRCGS Plant-Based Global Standard gives manufacturers a management system framework for keeping material of animal origin out of products sold as plant-based. It is an add-on certification: a site must also hold, or gain at the same time, a GFSI-benchmarked food safety certificate or BRCGS START! at intermediate level. Certified sites may use the BRCGS plant-based trademark on the products listed on their approved Schedule A.

This five-hour course provides an overview of Issue 1. It explains what “plant-based” means under the Standard and where animal-derived material hides in ingredients, processing aids, packaging and other inputs. It then works through all 20 sections of requirements in plain language, with examples from South African plant-based sites, and takes you through the certification process from Schedule A to audit day, corrective action, the certificate and use of the trademark.

It is an awareness-level course. It builds understanding of what the Standard asks for and how an audit works, so that everyone on a plant-based site can play their part in protecting the claim and take part confidently in preparing for and hosting a certification audit.

Who should attend

Anyone working on or with a plant-based production site, including:

• Production and hygiene staff and supervisors on plant-based and shared production sites
• Quality assurance and technical staff, including members of the HACCP team
• Goods-in, stores and warehouse staff who receive ingredients, packaging and other inputs
• Product development (NPD) and production planning teams
• Internal auditors and members of the site plant-based team
• Business owners and managers preparing for a first plant-based certification audit
• Consultants who support plant-based manufacturers

No previous HACCP knowledge is assumed, although some experience of a food safety system is helpful.

The qualified individual

The Standard expects every certified site to appoint a qualified individual to oversee its plant-based management system, and that person must have completed BRCGS’s own Plant-Based Global Standard Site Training Course. This ASC course is independent awareness training. It can form part of the plant-based awareness training your site gives its staff, alongside your own site-specific training, but it does not replace the BRCGS site training course for the qualified individual.

About this course and BRCGS

This is an independent course from ASC Food Safety Training. It explains the Standard in our own words, with clause references, and does not reproduce the Standard. It is not a BRCGS course and is not endorsed by BRCGS. The certificate you receive is a course completion certificate: it is not a BRCGS qualification and does not indicate BRCGS certification of any site. When preparing for an audit, always work from the current issue of the Standard and any BRCGS position statements.