Templates and records · BRCGS · Clause 3.9
BRCGS four-hour traceability test
BRCGS is specific: full traceability of a batch must be achieved within four hours, and this must be tested at least once a year.
In one sentence
The BRCGS traceability test starts from a product batch and rebuilds, within four hours at most, its raw materials and packaging with their suppliers, the intermediate steps and the customers who received it, with a mass balance, and must be repeated at least once a year, because clause 3.9 is a fundamental requirement.
- Where the standard requires it
- BRCGS · Clause 3.9 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 record Record to be retained (3.9, fundamental requirement)
- Who fills it in
- Quality, with logistics and production Reviewed by site management
- When
- At least once a year And whenever the auditor asks during the visit
- 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 requires every product batch to be traceable backwards, to the raw materials and packaging and their suppliers, and forwards, to the first customer, through every intermediate step, including rework and work in progress.
The system is tested at least once a year with an exercise that includes a quantity reconciliation, and full traceability must be achieved within four hours. The same is expected when the auditor picks a batch during the visit.
The logic of the record is the same as in IFS Food; the difference is the time limit, which BRCGS sets explicitly. The legal minimum is in Article 18 of Regulation (EC) 178/2002.
Structure
Fields the template should include
- Date, start and finish times, and total time
- Starting batch and direction
- Raw materials and packaging, with batches and suppliers
- Intermediate steps, rework and work in progress
- Customers, dates and quantities
- Mass balance and explained difference
- Achievement of the four-hour target
- Deviations and actions
Example
Example: annual test at a fictitious juice plant
Company, people and figures are fictitious: the example only shows what a properly completed record looks like.
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Date | 9 September 2026 · 08:00 to 09:25 · 1 h 25 min |
| Starting batch | Orange juice 1 l · batch ZN-26-0909 · 18,000 packs |
| Backward | Oranges from 2 cooperatives (4 batches) · carton batch B-7712 · cap batch T-1020 |
| Rework | 300 l of juice from the previous batch reincorporated · batch ZN-26-0908 identified |
| Forward | 3 customers · 17,640 packs |
| Balance | 18,000 = 17,640 dispatched + 324 in the warehouse + 36 samples · difference 0 |
| Target | Met: 1 h 25 min against a maximum of 4 h |
At the audit
Mistakes auditors commonly flag
- The test is timed only until the customers are found and does not include the raw materials.
- Rework or work in progress breaks the chain of batches.
- Food-contact packaging with no recorded batch.
- The balance does not reconcile and is not investigated.
- The live test during the audit takes more than four hours.
In Kimobox
How this record is kept in Kimobox
- 1Batches are linked from raw material and packaging through to delivery, including rework.
- 2Backward and forward queries return raw materials and customers in minutes.
- 3The result is recorded with start and finish times and its balance.
- 4If the ERP owns the batch, Kimobox consumes that data and attaches the quality records to it.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before getting started
Do the four hours run until everything is found?
Yes: full traceability, backwards and forwards, with the quantities. Finding just the customers is not enough.
Does packaging have to be traced?
Food-contact packaging, yes. It is one of the points the auditor checks in the live test.
Is the traceability test the same as a mock recall?
No. The traceability test shows the information can be obtained in time; testing the recall procedure shows the organisation knows how to act on it. BRCGS requires both.
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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
- Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law (Articles 18 and 19) EUR-Lex · 28 January 2002