BRCGS Storage & Distribution readiness for chilled and frozen operations

When we assess a chilled or frozen operation, we ask to follow one consignment through the hands that actually move it. We start at receipt and stay with it through storage, pick, loading and onward transport. At each handover, we want to know who knows the product's required conditions, who checks them and what happens when the evidence is missing or the condition is wrong.

We do this because a temperature procedure can look sound without settling the decision people face on a difficult shift. A late vehicle, a change of carrier or a product held between areas can expose uncertainty about who has authority to act. We pay particular attention where one team hands over to another: that is where we need the written system and the working system to meet.

BRCGS Storage & Distribution Issue 4 covers the applicable storage and distribution activities. BRCGS also publishes help, self-assessment material and the SD404 position statements. The position statements effective from 10 August 2026 need checking alongside the standard when finalising an audit plan. The operational walk-through in this article is Primor's preparation method, not a substitute for those documents.

Set the scope before testing the controls

Before we start testing records, we ask the business to set out the products, sites, vehicles and activities the proposed certification will cover. That includes subcontracted services and the point at which responsibility passes between businesses. “We do chilled distribution” does not tell us enough. A warehouse-only operation, a transport operation and a business combining both give us different handovers to examine.

For the chosen consignment, we use its actual product requirements. We do not use a generic temperature figure borrowed from another product as a readiness test. We trace the records that show how it was received, held and dispatched. Where a carrier takes over, we ask what information travels with the load, what evidence comes back and who checks that the handover is complete.

Ask what happens on a difficult shift

We ask the shift team to talk us through a disruption that fits the operation: perhaps a delayed vehicle, failed logger, out-of-range reading or carrier substitution. Who can decide whether product is held, released or escalated? Who contacts the customer if needed? Which record would show the decision and its basis? We then check those answers against the applicable standard, product requirements and the business's own responsibilities. We would not prescribe one answer for every site.

Next we ask to see a real recent deviation or corrective action. We want to understand the product decision first, then the investigation and follow-up. Did the change reach the next shift or the subcontractor involved? If the action is closed only in a central file, we cannot assume the handover has improved.

Our Storage & Distribution support starts with the movement of goods. We compare practice, records and responsibilities with the applicable requirements, then give the team a prioritised action list. Where the problem is a weak handover, a new form alone is unlikely to settle it: the people involved need to know what they check, when they escalate and how they record the decision. We can help put those arrangements into use and test the evidence again before the formal audit. The independent certification body conducts that audit and makes the certification decision.

Bring the operation into the first discussion

Bring a product and temperature profile, a simple map of the sites and transport in scope, a sample run of receipt-to-dispatch records, subcontractor arrangements and recent findings. If a handover already worries you, tell us which one. We would rather test that point with your team than begin with a generic document list.