For a dehydrated onion or garlic plant supplying retailers or large food manufacturers, BRCGS Food Safety and FSSC 22000 are the two certificates buyers ask for most, because both are recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). ISO 22000 on its own is a sound food safety management standard, but many large buyers do not accept it in place of a GFSI-recognised scheme.
The short verdict: if you sell into UK retail, ask for BRCGS. If your customers are multinational manufacturers, FSSC 22000 is usually accepted and sometimes preferred. If you are a smaller importer or trader without a retail customer behind you, ISO 22000 plus your own audit and lot testing can be enough. Always ask your customer first.
The three schemes compared
- BRCGS Food Safety: a GFSI-benchmarked standard that began with UK retailers. It sets detailed requirements for site standards, hygiene, foreign body control, allergens and traceability. Audits are graded, and there is an unannounced audit option. At the time of writing, Issue 9 is the current version; check the BRCGS website for any newer issue.
- FSSC 22000: built on ISO 22000, plus the prerequisite programme technical specification for food manufacturing and extra scheme rules. GFSI-recognised and common with multinational food companies. Version 7 was published in May 2026, with audits against it expected from 2027; Version 6 remains valid until then. Confirm current dates with the Foundation FSSC.
- ISO 22000: the international standard for food safety management systems. It covers HACCP principles, management commitment and prerequisite programmes in general terms. It is not GFSI-benchmarked on its own, which is the reason FSSC 22000 exists.
What each means on a dehydration floor
Dehydration plants have particular risks: raw onion arriving with soil and stones, long belt dryers, milling that creates dust, metal and foreign matter from cutting equipment, and moisture pick-up during packing. A good certificate should show controls at each of these points.
BRCGS tends to look hard at the physical site: segregation of the raw intake from the dry high-care area, foreign body controls such as magnets, sieves and metal detection, glass and brittle plastic registers, and pest control. FSSC 22000 asks for similar controls through its prerequisite programmes, with more weight on the management system, food defence and food fraud assessments. ISO 22000 leaves more to the plant to define, so two ISO 22000 plants can look quite different in practice.
None of the three tests your lot. A certified plant can still ship onion that fails on salmonella, pesticide residues or ethylene oxide. See salmonella in dehydrated onion and steam-sterilised vs untreated dehydrated onion.
Who asks for which
- UK supermarkets and their suppliers: usually BRCGS, as covered in why UK retailers ask for BRCGS.
- Multinational seasoning, snack and ready meal makers: often accept BRCGS or FSSC 22000, and some state a preference in their supplier manual.
- German and French retail chains: often ask for IFS Food, another GFSI-recognised scheme, though many accept BRCGS or FSSC 22000.
- US manufacturers: GFSI certification is widely asked for, alongside FDA facility registration. See FDA facility registration.
- Traders, wholesalers and smaller blenders: ISO 22000 or HACCP may be accepted, with lab results per lot.
Cost, time and what it says about a plant
BRCGS and FSSC 22000 cost a plant more in audit fees, staff time and building work than ISO 22000. A plant moving from ISO 22000 to a GFSI scheme may need many months to close gaps, so do not count on a supplier upgrading in time for your launch. A plant that has kept a GFSI certificate for several years has shown it can sustain a system under outside audit. That is useful evidence, but it is not proof of the lot you are buying.
How to check any certificate
- Look the site up in the scheme's public directory. BRCGS and FSSC 22000 both publish one.
- Check the scope covers dehydration, milling and packing of onion or garlic, not only sorting or storage.
- Check the address. A certificate for a sister plant does not cover your product.
- Check the expiry date, the certification body and, for BRCGS, the grade.
- Ask for the last audit's non-conformities and how they were closed.
- Ask whether milling or sterilisation is done off site, which may sit outside the certificate.
Our view
Choose the scheme your customer names, then judge the plant on the floor. Traders sometimes show a processor's certificate as their own, which is one reason to read buying from a trader vs direct from the plant. The general background is in what certifications a spice grinding unit should have.
How Creston & Co helps
We check certificates against the scheme directories, confirm the scope and address match the plant making your dehydrated onion or dehydrated garlic, audit the plant ourselves, have each lot tested at an NABL-accredited lab, and supervise loading, for one written fee agreed in advance. To shortlist certified plants, book a free sourcing review.