ISO 22000 vs BRCGS vs FSSC 22000: Which Certification Fits Your Facility?

The first question is not "which is best?" but "what does your buyer require?". Most certification decisions are settled by customer or retailer requirements rather than internal preference.

ISO 22000: a flexible management-system standard applicable to any link in the food chain. It builds on HACCP, PRPs and the PDCA cycle. On its own it is not GFSI-recognised, so it may not satisfy some international buyers.

FSSC 22000: ISO 22000 + a sector PRP specification (e.g. ISO/TS 22002-1 for manufacturing) + additional scheme requirements. GFSI-recognised, and the logical step for facilities already holding ISO 22000.

BRCGS Food Safety: a detailed, prescriptive standard born from UK retail, with grades (AA to D) and a rigorous audit that starts with the site tour. Frequently required for UK export and major retail chains.

Effort profile: ISO 22000 asks you to prove your system works; BRCGS tells you in detail what to do and checks it clause by clause; FSSC sits in between with strong emphasis on PRPs, food defence and food fraud prevention.

Cost and time: budget three items — internal readiness work (usually the largest), certification body fees, and operational time. A mid-sized facility typically needs 4–9 months of serious preparation before stage 1.

Recommended sequence: stable PRPs first → a realistic HACCP plan with a small number of CCPs → at least three months of consistent operational records → internal audit and gap analysis → then the certification audit.

Common failures: records written retrospectively, theoretical CCPs with no real monitoring, a pest control program without maps and follow-up, and previous findings closed without documented corrective action.

Inside the platform you can run a gap analysis against all three standards, turn each gap into a task with an owner and due date, and track CAPA closure right up to the audit.