BRCGS Storage and Distribution: Certifying Cold Stores and 3PLs

What is BRCGS Storage and Distribution, and who asks for it?

BRCGS Storage and Distribution is the BRCGS standard for logistics operations: storage, distribution and transport of food, packaging and consumer products. The current version is Issue 4. The certificate is issued by a BRCGS-approved certification body, never by a consultant.

According to the official BRCGS page and the Storage and Distribution guide to certification, the standard applies at any point in the chain, from primary production to retail, and a site can certify its full scope or only what it actually does: storage only, distribution only, transport only. The standard is free from the BRCGS Store, and certified sites are listed in the BRCGS Directory, which brands and retailers use to find suppliers.

For a logistics provider in Morocco or elsewhere in Africa, the request almost always comes from a customer: a European or Gulf retailer, a manufacturer that has to approve the warehouse holding its finished goods, a seafood or fresh-produce exporter that relies on cold storage before shipment. The profiles we see are concrete: a cold store in the Tanger Med logistics zone consolidating containers for Europe, an ambient distribution centre on the outskirts of Casablanca, a port service provider in Agadir holding frozen seafood, a refrigerated haulier linking the Souss to northern ports.

For a buyer, the same standard answers a different question: how do I know that the third-party warehouse holding my product in another country keeps it safe? A certificate, a grade and a public listing give a first answer; a second-party audit gives the rest.

Which activities fall within the Storage and Distribution scope?

Storage, distribution and transport, without processing. A few activities are covered by dedicated sections; other related services go through voluntary modules.

The line with processing is strict. The official SD404 position statements state that processing, however minimal, is not allowed, because even minor process changes can affect food safety. The only exception is trimming fresh produce for purely aesthetic reasons, by concession, and only for sites that were already certified to Issue 3.

What are the voluntary modules of Storage and Distribution?

BRCGS lists six modules: e-commerce, cross-docking, wholesale, contracted packing, inspection and waste management. They are added to the standard when your activity or your customer calls for them.

According to BRCGS, a module can replace a separate audit, such as a second-party audit, or meet a requirement specific to a customer or a country. The site informs its certification body before the next audit; the module is audited at the same time as the standard, which can lengthen the audit, including when the audit is unannounced. It is assessed as pass or fail, and its non-conformities do not affect the site’s grade.

Two modules have been clarified officially. For cross-docking, each platform gets its own report; if one fails, only that platform is re-audited and the certificate is reissued without the module. For wholesale, a 2021 position statement requires a fraud vulnerability assessment plan for the suppliers of branded products, reviewed at least once a year.

For the four other modules, the official SD401 self-assessment tool summarises what is expected:

• E-commerce: online sale of finished products to businesses or consumers, from warehouses under the site’s direct control; a formal contract with each customer, tested and validated shipping packaging, and traceability tested at least once a year and achieved within 4 hours. Courier, parcel or pallet networks are covered only for the last mile, under contract and with performance monitoring.
• Contracted packing (repacking, assembly, labelling of packed products): risk assessment of the operation, checks on packaging and codes (dates, lots, weights) at the start, during and at the end of each run, verification of vision systems and checkweighers, full traceability of components.
• Product inspection: a service defined with the customer (sorting criteria, sampling rates, fate of rejected products), contract review before accepting the work, risk assessment for other products, calibrated equipment and records of the activity.
• Waste management (recovery and recycling): defined material types known to the driver, receipt separated from product areas, vehicle segregation and cleaning rules, storage that does not attract pests, and compliance with legal disposal requirements.

For any contracted service, the customer contract, integration into the hazard analysis, written procedures and staff training apply as well.

How is a Storage and Distribution audit graded?

The audit gives a grade from AA to D, based on the number and severity of non-conformities. An unannounced audit adds a “+” to the grade (AA+, A+ and so on), according to the BRCGS079 protocol. The grade sets how long the certificate lasts, and therefore how often you are audited.

These rules come from the guide to certification, the SD404 position statements and the BRCGS079 protocol. Audit duration is calculated with the official BRCGS calculator, based on site size and scope. The scale linking the number of critical, major and minor non-conformities to each grade is set out in the Standard’s audit protocol, which the certification body applies; the report states the grade awarded and the non-conformities behind it.

One more rule worth knowing: a site cannot change certification body in the four months before its re-audit due date, unless BRCGS agrees in writing.

Announced, blended or unannounced: which audit programmes?

Storage and Distribution Issue 4 offers an announced programme, a blended announced programme and an unannounced programme with two options. Whatever the programme, at least one audit every three years is unannounced.

The blended process is described in the BRCGS080 procedure: for Storage and Distribution, the standard’s colour coding separates clauses that can be checked remotely from those that must be verified on site.

The mandatory unannounced audit in practice

The requirement has applied to Storage and Distribution Issue 4 audits since 1 May 2021. A site’s first audit is announced, unless the site itself asks for an unannounced audit. After that, the calendar follows precise rules:

• within three months of an audit, the certification body tells you the year of the unannounced audit, never the date;
• the audit can take place at any time in the last four months of the cycle, including the 28 calendar days before the due date;
• the contract with the certification body must be signed before the window opens, and the body kept informed of planned shutdowns; otherwise the certificate may lapse and a major non-conformity is raised;
• in the voluntary unannounced programme, refusing the auditor access sends the site back to the announced programme, at its own cost, and can cost it the certificate;
• a site certified to both Food Safety and Storage and Distribution is advised to combine the two audits; if they stay separate, both must be unannounced.

What GFSI recognises

The official GFSI page, checked on 4 November 2026, lists Storage and Distribution Issue 4 for scope G (provision of storage and distribution services), with the announced, unannounced (options 1 and 2) and blended announced programmes only. The same Issue 4 appears among the programmes undergoing benchmarking against the 2024 version of the GFSI requirements. Version 8 of the SD404 position statements, applicable since 10 August 2026, aligns the standard with those requirements.

What changed on 10 August 2026?

Nine new position statements amend ten clauses: seven to align the standard with the GFSI 2024 benchmarking requirements, two after a review by the BRCGS Storage and Distribution Technical Advisory Committee. They have applied since 10 August 2026, so a system documented before that date needs a fresh read.

For section 17 contract operations, the guidance on clause 17.3 gives a useful benchmark to any cold store manager: without automatic recording, manual checks continue through non-working periods, weekends and public holidays included, normally every two hours for chilled and every four hours for frozen products unless otherwise justified; frequency may drop while doors stay shut, at night for instance.

BRCGS Storage and Distribution or IFS Logistics: which one?

Your customer decides first. Both standards cover storage and transport, both are listed by GFSI for scope G, and they share a foundation: hazard analysis, prerequisite programmes, traceability, fraud and product defence. Their audit and scoring logic differ.

The IFS Logistics version 3 standard defines six KO requirements: governance and commitment (1.2.1), product safety management system (2.2.1.1), monitoring system of each CCP (2.2.3.6), customer agreement (4.1.3), internal audits (5.1.1) and corrective actions (5.9.2). A single KO requirement scored D, more than one major non-conformity or a score below 75 % blocks the certificate; a single major non-conformity requires a follow-up audit within six months, and the certificate is then issued at Foundation level, as set out in the English text of IFS Logistics version 3. IFS also states that an IFS Logistics audit can be combined with other IFS audits.

How to decide

• Your customer’s supplier requirements. If they name a standard, there is no equivalence. BRCGS is widespread among UK retailers; IFS is common among German and French retailers.
• Your group’s other certificates. A warehouse attached to a factory certified to BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 or IFS Food version 8 benefits from staying in the same family.
• The services you provide. Ripening and simple sorting of fruit and vegetables are part of IFS Logistics; cross-docking, e-commerce and waste management go through BRCGS modules. IFS Logistics also names air freight and container yards.

Other programmes also cover scope G according to GFSI, including FSSC 22000, SQF, PrimusGFS and the Freshcare Supply Chain standard. Our GFSI standards comparison places them all. A warehouse that wants an ISO-based architecture can look at FSSC 22000, which includes a category for transport and storage.

Is your warehouse ready for the audit?

Check these points with your operations director before booking a date.

• The customer’s request is in writing: standard, version, audit programme and deadline.
  
• The scope is set: storage, distribution, transport, modules, overflow warehouses.
  
• The ONSSA sanitary approval or authorisation (or its equivalent in your country) covers the storage activity.
  
• The hazard analysis covers every flow: chilled, frozen, ambient, open product, returns.
  
• Temperatures are recorded with alarms, including at night, at weekends and on public holidays.
  
• Every transport or storage subcontractor has a signed contract: temperatures, vehicle, segregation, security.
  
• Fraud and threat assessments are less than a year old and were carried out by competent people.
  
• Cleaning equipment is identified and stored off the floor.
  
• Agency staff and forklift drivers have been trained on their responsibilities.
  
• A traceability test has been run on a real pallet, from intake to dispatch.
  
• The contract with the certification body allows an unannounced audit throughout the four-month window.
  

If more than three boxes are still empty, start with a diagnosis rather than an audit date.

How does certification fit with regulation and your customers’ certificates?

Logistics certification sits on top of regulation; it does not replace it. In Morocco, the ONSSA page states that food businesses must hold a sanitary approval or authorisation, under Law 28-07 and Decree 2-10-473. A certificate does not make up for a missing or outdated approval. Elsewhere in Africa or the Middle East, the national food authority plays the same role, and the destination country applies its own import rules.

Logistics also extends your customers’ certificates: a certified cannery, packhouse or packaging plant expects its products to stay under control all the way to the quay. For a fresh-produce packhouse, see our page on GLOBALG.A.P., SQF and PrimusGFS; for a buyer qualifying a logistics provider, our audits and inspections, including second-party supplier audits; for the wider picture, our food safety consulting.