Templates and records · BRCGS · Clause 1.1.2
BRCGS food safety culture plan
Culture is not declared: it is assessed, planned with actions and deadlines, and measured. BRCGS wants to see it in writing.
In one sentence
The BRCGS food safety culture plan is the document in which senior management defines how it will develop and improve the site's food safety and quality culture — baseline assessment, specific activities, owners, timescales and how effectiveness will be measured — as required by clause 1.1.2, within the fundamental requirement on senior management commitment.
- Where the standard requires it
- BRCGS · Clause 1.1.2 Clause references follow the numbering of BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9. If your audit is already against a later issue, check the correspondence on brcgs.com.
- Type of information
- Mandatory document Document to be maintained (1.1.2, fundamental requirement 1.1)
- Who fills it in
- Senior management Quality or HR drafts it, but senior management approves and leads it
- When
- Multi-year plan with periodic review Activities are scheduled over time; effectiveness is reviewed at management review
- How long it is kept
- Shelf life plus 12 months, at least BRCGS requires a retention period to be set taking into account legislation, the customer and the product's shelf life, and as a minimum records must be kept for the shelf life plus twelve months (3.3).
What the standard requires
What BRCGS demands and what it leaves to your judgement
BRCGS asks senior management for a plan to develop and continually improve the food safety and quality culture. The plan must include defined activities involving all staff, a timetable for implementation and a review of its effectiveness.
The Standard does not impose an assessment method: staff surveys, interviews, observation on the floor or behavioural indicators are all valid if they allow the starting point and progress to be measured. What is not acceptable is a plan with no baseline data and no results.
The auditor compares the plan with what they see and hear on the floor: if staff do not know how to report a safety problem, or are afraid to, the plan exists only on paper.
Structure
Fields the template should include
- Baseline assessment: method, date and main results
- Measurable culture objectives
- Specific activities, who they are aimed at and owner
- Implementation timetable
- Indicators to measure progress
- Effectiveness review: date, results and changes to the plan
- Senior management approval
Example
Example: two-year plan for a fictitious meat plant
Company, people and figures are fictitious: the example only shows what a properly completed record looks like.
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Baseline | Anonymous survey in January 2026 · 212 responses · 41% do not know how to report a safety problem |
| Objective | Raise the share of staff who know the reporting channel to 80% within 12 months |
| Activity 1 | Suggestion box and QR code in the changing rooms for reporting issues · quality · March |
| Activity 2 | Five-minute start-of-shift briefing with a safety topic · shift leaders · from April |
| Activity 3 | Quarterly recognition for the best reports · senior management |
| Indicators | Reports received per month · result of the repeat survey in January 2027 |
| Review | September 2026: 37 reports in 6 months against 4 in the previous half-year |
At the audit
Mistakes auditors commonly flag
- The plan is a statement of values with no activities, deadlines or owners.
- No baseline assessment: there is no way to know whether progress is being made.
- Activities only for managers, never reaching floor staff or temporary workers.
- The effectiveness review never happens or changes nothing in the plan.
- Staff interviewed by the auditor are not aware of any of the activities.
In Kimobox
How this record is kept in Kimobox
- 1Plan activities are managed as improvement actions, with an owner, a date and follow-up.
- 2Culture indicators are calculated from real data: reports received, training completed, incidents by area.
- 3Staff reports can come in from a mobile and are recorded with their follow-up.
- 4Progress on the plan flows into the pre-generated management review report.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before getting started
Do we have to run a culture survey?
It is not mandatory as such, but it is the most common way to measure the starting point and progress. What BRCGS requires is a plan with activities, a timetable and an effectiveness review.
Who has to lead the plan?
The site's senior management. It can delegate drafting and carrying out activities, but the clause is part of senior management commitment, which is a fundamental requirement.
What does the auditor look at?
The document, its indicators and, above all, the people: they ask on the floor whether staff know how to report a safety problem and what has changed since the last audit.
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Sources
Where each figure comes from
References to the official text in force. If a standard is revised, this page is updated and the review date says so.
- BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety, Issue 9 BRCGS · Published August 2022
- Schemes recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative GFSI · Official list