How to Prepare for a BRCGS Unannounced Audit

By Robert Low, Lead Management System Specialist

The entire point of an unannounced audit is that you cannot prepare for it in the way most people mean when they say “prepare.” There is no week beforehand to tidy the files, chase outstanding signatures, or print fresh copies of procedures. The auditor arrives, and whatever state your system is actually in, that is the state they see.

This changes the right way to think about “BRCGS unannounced audit preparation.” It is not a checklist you run through before a visit — it is a description of what needs to be permanently true, because you will not get advance warning to make it true temporarily.

What “Always Ready” Actually Means

Supplier approvals are current, not just recorded. It is not enough to have a record that a supplier was approved eighteen months ago. Supplier monitoring needs to be live — expired certificates flagged automatically, re-approval scheduled before lapse, not discovered as a gap when the auditor pulls a random supplier file.

Nonconformances are closed, not just logged. An open CAPA from three months ago with no recent activity is exactly the kind of thing an unannounced auditor finds within the first hour. Nonconformance tracking needs real ownership and real due dates, enforced continuously — not chased up only when an audit is on the calendar.

Training records reflect current competence. If a new starter has been running a critical control point for six weeks without their training record being updated, that is a finding waiting to happen. This needs to be current by default, not brought up to date in a rush.

Document versions in use match the approved version. Walk the production floor and check: is the laminated procedure on the wall the same version as the one in the system? Unannounced audits frequently catch this exact gap, because it only shows up when nobody has had warning to go around physically checking.

Why “Permanently Ready” Is Achievable Without Constant Effort

This sounds exhausting if the only way to achieve it is manual vigilance — someone checking everything, all the time. In practice, the manufacturers who handle unannounced audits calmly are not the ones working harder at compliance. They are the ones whose system makes the gaps visible automatically, so nothing drifts unnoticed for months.

A dashboard showing open CAPAs, expiring approvals, and overdue training in real time means problems get caught and closed in the ordinary course of work, weeks before an audit — not discovered during one.

What to Do in the Room

When the auditor does arrive, the practical advice does not change much regardless of your system:

• Answer the question asked, not a broader version of it
• If a record takes more than a minute or two to locate, say so honestly rather than improvising
• Walk the auditor through your actual process, not the idealised version in the procedure document

The audit itself is rarely where compliance is won or lost. It is mostly a check on whether the day-to-day system was actually working, or whether it was a performance that only happened when someone was watching.

The Honest Test

A useful exercise: pick a random product batch from three months ago right now, with no warning to yourself. Can you trace its raw materials back to supplier approval records? Can you find the in-process checks? Is there a closed-out record of any deviation that occurred?

If that takes twenty minutes of searching across different files, an unannounced auditor doing the same exercise will find the same friction — at the worst possible moment.