Label Verification Record

This is the line-side check that a label matches spec, run repeatedly through production. It is not artwork sign-off, not the changeover clean, and not the date-code check on its own — using it for those blurs the record trail each one is meant to produce.

BRCGS cl.5.2 sets the expectation that label content is checked against specification at the point it is applied, not only when artwork is first approved. The clauses below map that expectation onto this template's sections.

Label verification sits under BRCGS globally, but what a wrong label actually triggers downstream depends on where the product ships.

Filling in every field is the easy part. The judgement calls below decide whether a completed record would hold up if a mislabelled pack were ever traced back to it.

These are the patterns that recur across sites running this template, not a list of every possible answer.

A specification changed to add a new stabiliser, and the allergen declaration moved with it. The master label at the line, however, was the version printed before the change — nobody had swapped it when the new spec went live. Every verification for two shifts compared the new label against that old master and passed, because the two matched each other perfectly. They just no longer matched the product actually being made.

The gap only surfaced when a customer complaint referenced an ingredient that wasn't on the pack. The verification records for both shifts read Yes, Yes, Yes down the column — a paper trail that looked exactly like the system working, because the check was comparing the label to the wrong thing rather than not comparing it at all.

The form itself is not where this breaks. It breaks when the master label goes stale, the second signature is a formality, or a hold never gets a location — none of which a static checklist catches on its own.

KnowQuality

Flags when a reference sample hasn't been updated against the latest specification, and keeps changeover verification linked to the product register so a stale master can't quietly pass a check.

KnowLogistics

Traces where affected stock physically sits once a hold is raised from this record, so Quantity Affected and Product Location reflect what is on the floor, not what is remembered.

KnowTrain

Confirms the named second checker was rostered and on shift at the time of the changeover, so independence is verifiable rather than assumed from a signature alone.

Ella

Rolls verification pass rate and open holds from this template into one view across sites, and holds every write for your approval before it touches a live record.

Label verification

The line-side check that the label actually applied to a running product matches its approved specification, repeated at defined points through a run.

Reference sample

A current, signed-off master label kept at the line for direct comparison, distinct from the artwork file or the specification document.

Changeover

The point at which a line switches from one product or pack format to another, and the highest-risk moment for the wrong label to be applied.

Allergen emphasis

The typographic distinction — bold, capitals or underline — required to make allergens stand out within an ingredient list rather than simply be present in it.

Reconciliation

Accounting for labels issued against labels used and destroyed, so that a discrepancy in count flags a possible mislabelling before it is found any other way.