BRCGS Non-Conformities Explained: Major, Minor and Why the Fundamentals Change Everything

By Robert Low, Director, Lead Auditor & BRCGS Approved Trainer

Every BRCGS audit produces findings, and the language around them, major, minor, Fundamental, drives everything from your grade to whether you hold a certificate at all. Yet I regularly meet quality managers, and plenty of customers, who could not confidently explain the difference. Here it is, plainly.

Minor Non-Conformities

A minor is raised where a requirement has not been fully met, but the lapse does not indicate a failure of the system and product safety is not in doubt. A cleaning record with a missed signature, a document past its review date, a single gap in a training matrix. Minors are the everyday currency of auditing, every site gets some, and the count of minors is the main driver of where your grade lands, as I covered in my article on BRCGS audit grades.

Major Non-Conformities

A major is raised where there is a substantial failure to meet a requirement, or where objective evidence raises significant doubt about the conformity of the product. Not a slipped signature, but a control that is not actually working: a supplier approval process that exists on paper only, monitoring records completed in advance, a traceability exercise that cannot reconcile quantities. Majors hit the grade hard and demand serious corrective action with evidence before certification proceeds.

The Fundamentals Multiplier

Here is the part that changes everything. Certain requirements are designated Fundamental, and a major non-conformity against the statement of intent of a Fundamental does not reduce your grade, it removes your certificate: non-certification at an initial audit, withdrawal at a recertification audit, and a further full audit to get back. I have written a full piece on the Fundamental requirements, because in my view they should shape every site’s internal audit priorities.

What NC Counts Do Not Tell You

A raw finding count without context is close to noise. Every non-conformity on a certificated site’s report has, by definition, been corrected with evidence reviewed before the certificate was issued. What separates good sites from mediocre ones is not how few findings they get on one day, it is how they respond: honest root cause, preventive action that sticks, verification that it worked. That is why, as I argued in my piece on customer grade demands, reviewing a supplier’s CAPA tells you more than their grade ever will. And it is why I teach root cause analysis the way I do, covered in how to write a CAPA that satisfies a customer review.