BRCGS Consultant in Africa: The Complete Guide to Choosing One

What does a BRCGS consultant actually do?

A BRCGS consultant turns a buyer’s requirement into a system that holds up on audit day and in the years that follow. The consultant issues no certificate: the job is to prepare the site for assessment by a certification body approved by BRCGS.

In Morocco, and in most African exporting countries, the request almost always comes from export. A UK retailer, a European importer or a food service group wants a certificate recognised by GFSI, the Global Food Safety Initiative, before it lists a supplier. BRCGS is one of the programmes GFSI recognises. The buyer’s deadline is often short, and the quality team is already stretched by production, customer audits and the inspections of the national food safety authority, which in Morocco is ONSSA (Office national de sécurité sanitaire des produits alimentaires).

A consultant brings three things an in-house team rarely has at the same time:

• an auditor’s reading of the standard, requirement by requirement, including the evidence the certification body will ask to see;
• a project method: gap analysis, prioritised action plan, milestones and progress reviews with management;
• skills transfer: the goal is a team that can run the system without the consultant once the certificate is issued.

BRCGS says so itself: a site may obtain consultancy if needed while it prepares, and BRCGS keeps a directory of approved consultants on brcgs.com. The same website states that BRCGS accepts no liability for the advice consultants give. In other words, choosing the consultant remains your risk.

What a consultant should not do

A consultant should not write a turnkey system that nobody on site understands. Nor should the consultant answer in your team’s place during the audit. A BRCGS auditor interviews operators, team leaders and management. If the system belongs to the consultant, the audit reveals it in less than an hour.

Which BRCGS standard fits your business?

The right standard depends on what you make or what you move, not on the name of your sector. BRCGS publishes several separate standards; five cover most needs of companies in Morocco and the rest of Africa.

Two points deserve a managing director’s attention.

First, START! is not a lighter version of Food Safety. It is a development programme for sites that are not ready yet, and BRCGS presents it as a pathway to Food Safety Issue 9. START! appears neither among the programmes recognised by GFSI nor among those undergoing benchmarking (GFSI pages checked in November 2026). Check with your buyer that it accepts START! before you choose this route.

Second, one company may need two standards. A cannery in Agadir that also makes its own cans falls under Food Safety for the food plant and under Packaging Materials for the can-making line, if it sells packaging to third parties. A consultant should ask this question at the very first meeting.

How does BRCGS support run, from gap analysis to certificate?

BRCGS support follows seven steps, and the last two belong to the certification body. ACG’s route mirrors the official BRCGS logic: understand, assess, prepare, audit, correct, certify.

BRCGS sets two official deadlines after the audit: non-conformities must be closed within 28 days, and the certificate is issued within 42 calendar days of the first audit day, if certification is granted. Both deadlines appear in the guide to certification published by BRCGS.

The length of the audit itself depends on the size of the site, the number of HACCP studies and the scope. BRCGS provides an audit duration calculator for Issue 9: the certification body applies it and states the resulting duration on its quote, which is the only figure that counts for your site.

The detailed method, with the split of roles and the most common mistakes, is set out in our article on working with a BRCGS consultant, step by step.

Which Food Safety Issue 9 requirements take the most work?

The most expensive gaps are almost never about paperwork. They concern management commitment, the condition of the plant and the ability to prove what is done every day. Here is what we see most often at gap analysis stage in Morocco and West Africa.

Senior management commitment and food safety culture

Issue 9 expects a food safety culture plan, led by senior management, with actions and indicators. A plan written by the quality department and never presented to the management committee does not hold. The managing director must be able to explain to the auditor what was measured and what has changed as a result.

The HACCP plan

The HACCP study must be based on the Codex Alimentarius principles and reflect how the lines really run. The classic weaknesses: a process flow diagram never verified on the floor, allergen hazards left out, critical limits without justification, and no verification activity.

The production environment

Cracked floors, damaged seals, cross flows between dirty and clean areas, condensation above open product. These gaps require building work, which means a budget and lead times. They must be identified at the gap analysis, not discovered at the mock audit.

Allergens, traceability and recall

A traceability test must find, within a set time, the raw materials and packaging of a lot, then the customers it was delivered to. On sites that use sauces or marinades, allergen management is often the weak point: an incomplete matrix, cleaning that has not been validated, labels that nobody checks.

Food defence and food fraud

Issue 9 expects an assessment of deliberate threats and a vulnerability assessment for food fraud on raw materials. For a Moroccan exporter, fraud on oil, on origin or on fish species is a concrete subject, not a theoretical one.

Some requirements are designated “fundamental” in the standard: a major non-conformity against one of them prevents certification. The official BRCGS self-assessment checklist marks twelve of them in Issue 9: senior management commitment and continual improvement, the food safety plan (HACCP), internal audits, management of suppliers of raw materials and packaging, corrective and preventive actions, traceability, layout, product flow and segregation, housekeeping and hygiene, management of allergens, control of operations, labelling and pack control, and staff training. Our guide to BRCGS certification in Morocco details what the site must be able to show for each.

How do you choose a BRCGS consultant in Africa?

Choose on verifiable evidence, not on a promised result. A consultant who “guarantees” the certificate is promising something that is not theirs to give.

BRCGS publishes the minimum criteria for its consultant programme: a degree or equivalent in a relevant field, a registered QMS Lead Auditor course or equivalent, at least five years’ experience in the relevant sector, and evidence of consulting experience with client references. It is a first filter, not a guarantee.

Before you sign, check the following:

• The consultant appears in the official BRCGS consultant directory, for the standard that concerns you.
  
• The consultant has already supported a site in your sector (canning, fruit and vegetables, packaging, logistics).
  
• The consultant has real GFSI audit experience and knows the Issue 9 audit protocol.
  
• A written gap analysis comes before any overall quote.
  
• The proposal details the deliverables, the number of days on site and remote, and what remains your team’s responsibility.
  
• A full mock audit is planned, separate from working visits.
  
• The consultant trains your process owners instead of writing everything alone.
  
• The consultant works in your teams’ languages: French, Arabic, and English for exchanges with the buyer.
  
• The consultant states clearly that they cannot be your site’s certification auditor.
  
• Follow-up after the certificate is offered: internal audits, monitoring, preparation of the next audit.
  

For a site in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal or Cameroon, add one criterion: the ability to be on site at the key stages (gap analysis, mock audit) and to work remotely the rest of the time without losing pace.

What happens after the BRCGS certificate is issued?

The certificate opens a maintenance period, not a break. The site will be re-audited, and every audit compares what is done today with what was shown last time.

Once certified, the site appears in the BRCGS Directory, which BRCGS describes as the shop window brands and retailers use to select their suppliers. For a Moroccan exporter, it is a concrete sales argument: a buyer can check the certificate without asking you for it. The reverse is also true: a suspension or a certificate that is not renewed is visible. For a buyer sourcing from Africa, the Directory is the first check; a second-party supplier audit then tells you whether the certificate covers what you actually buy.

The standard includes a grading system and an unannounced audit option, both of which shape how buyers see a supplier. The grade, from AA to D, depends on the number and level of non-conformities; a + is added after an unannounced audit (AA+ or A+, for example). The next audit is due twelve months later, or six months for a site graded C or D. Whatever the programme chosen, BRCGS requires at least one unannounced audit every three years for sites certificated to Food Safety (BRCGS079).

Maintenance rests on five routines:

1. internal audits, planned to cover every requirement over the year, with follow-up of actions;
2. management review, which tracks food safety indicators and the culture plan;
3. change management: any new product, new line or new supplier triggers a fresh HACCP analysis and risk assessment;
4. monitoring of the standard, of official BRCGS position statements and of the regulations of destination countries;
5. ongoing training, especially for new starters and seasonal workers.

This is often the point where the support changes shape. The consultant moves from builder to external checker: outsourced internal audits, a mock audit before each re-audit, one-off help with a complaint or a recall. Some sites also hand the food safety manager role to an expert working part-time, when the post is vacant or a new unit opens; see our outsourced QHSE and food safety manager service.

BRCGS, IFS or FSSC 22000: do you really have to choose?

Yes, and the buyer chooses first. All three are recognised by GFSI, but each market has its habits. BRCGS is widespread with UK retailers. IFS Food, whose Version 8 has been mandatory since January 2024, is common with German and French retailers. FSSC 22000, whose Version 7 was published in May 2026, builds on ISO 22000 and is often requested by multinational manufacturers.

For a buyer that has chosen its standard, one certificate does not replace another. But a system built properly for BRCGS covers a large part of the requirements of the other two. An experienced consultant designs the documentation so that a second certification, if it becomes necessary, does not start from scratch.

For the comparison with FSSC 22000 and the transition from Version 6 to Version 7, see our FSSC 22000 consulting page; for IFS Food, our IFS certification page.

A reasoned choice: one example

Take a canned vegetable exporter in the Meknès region. Its UK customer requires BRCGS, and a new German customer asks for IFS Food. The right answer is not to pick one against the other, but to build a common foundation: HACCP plan, prerequisite programmes, traceability, allergens, fraud, culture. That foundation serves both audits. Only the requirements specific to each standard, and each audit protocol, need dedicated work. The consultant should plan for it so that the same work is not invoiced twice.

On cost and timeline, the levers are set out in BRCGS consultancy cost, timeline and funding in Morocco. For the status of each version and the Issue 10 watch, see BRCGS Issue 10 and the standards in force. And for a concrete example, read the case of an exporting fish cannery.