What this is
What is a supplier change notification?
What is a supplier change notification?
A supplier change notification is the record of a material change at an approved supplier — site, formulation, ownership, subcontracting, certification or key contact — with the assessment of what that change does to your product, approvals and customer claims. It covers declared changes and ones you discover yourself.
What counts as a material change?
A change is material if it alters anything you have made a statement about: where the product is made, what is in it, who else handles it, or what certification underwrites it. Ownership counts even when nothing physical moves, because it changes the sanctions and continuity picture overnight.
What is a change control clause in a supply agreement?
A change control clause obliges the supplier to notify you in advance of defined changes and, usually, to obtain written agreement before implementing them. Without one, a supplier may reformulate or relocate and tell you afterwards. Notified In Advance As Required is where that clause is evidenced or shown to have failed.
Scope
When is a supplier change notification required?
This record captures one declared or discovered change and the decision taken on it. It is the trigger, not the delivery: what follows is a specification revision, a new audit or a management of change record.
Use this template when
- A supplier has notified you of a change to site, formulation, ownership, subcontracting, certification or contact
- You have discovered an undeclared change — a new delivery-note address, a different plant code, a lapsed certificate
- An audit or a customer has identified a change nobody told you about
- A supplier's certification body, scope or issue date has altered and the effect on your approval must be judged
- An ownership or group restructure has changed who actually controls the manufacturing site
Do not use it for
- Supplier Approval Record, which is the standing approval decision. This record feeds it; it does not replace the reassessment when scope moves.
- Supplier Corrective Request, which is raised when a supplier has failed against a requirement. A properly declared change is not a nonconformity.
- Supplier Audit, which is the on-site verification. Where this record concludes a new site audit is required, that audit is a separate template with its own evidence.
- Supplier Improvement Plan, which handles sustained performance shortfalls rather than a single discrete change event.
- Supplier Offboarding and Exit, which applies when the change is severe enough that the relationship ends. Reach that conclusion here, then run the exit separately.
Compliance mapping
Which BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 requirements does this satisfy?
BRCGS Issue 9 places supplier change inside supplier management and specification control, pulling in allergen and labelling clauses whenever formulation is touched.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.5.1 | Management of suppliers of raw materials and packaging, including approval and ongoing monitoring, with reassessment where the basis of approval changes | Header |
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.6 | Specifications for raw materials and packaging that are adequate, accurate and kept current | Evidence needed |
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.5.3 | Management of allergens, including assessment of raw materials and the effect of change on allergen status | Assessment |
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.5.2 | Labelling and pack control, ensuring labelling reflects the ingredients and claims actually applicable | Response |
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.9 | Traceability of raw materials through processing to the customer, and identification of affected product | Response |
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.7 | Corrective and preventive action, including root cause where a failure of notification has occurred | Outcome |
What it does not cover
- An acknowledgement email to the supplier, which confirms receipt and nothing more. A thanked notification is the commonest form of an unassessed change.
- A new certificate filed against the old site record, which produces a folder that looks complete while the audit evidence describes premises that no longer make your product.
- A specification updated without an allergen reassessment, which carries the change into the document but not into the control that protects consumers from it.
- A verbal assurance that the change does not affect the product, which is the supplier assessing their own change. The assessment is yours to make and evidence.
- An assessment completed after the first affected delivery, which leaves you defending a retrospective decision about material already sold.
Global
Supplier Change Notification requirements by country
Supplier change is a food law problem before it is a certification problem: your label statements and the traceability of your stock are both statutory. Three regimes govern what happens next.
Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, Articles 18 and 19
One-step-back, one-step-forward traceability and the duty to withdraw food not in compliance with food safety requirements.
A site or subcontractor change alters your one-step-back picture immediately. Discovered late, Article 19 puts the withdrawal decision on you while you are still establishing what changed, which is why Existing Stock Assessed cannot wait for the full assessment.
Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Article 9 and Annex II
Mandatory particulars including the fourteen declarable allergens, and the requirement that information provided is accurate.
A reformulation, or a move to a plant handling different allergens, changes what your label must say. Impact On Allergen Profile Assessed and Labelling Reviewed evidence that the label was reconsidered rather than assumed.
21 CFR Part 117, Subpart G — Supply-Chain Program
Receiving facilities must approve suppliers and conduct verification activities appropriate to the hazard being controlled.
Approval is granted for a specific hazard control at a specific facility. When production moves, the verification on file no longer covers the entity supplying you, and the programme requires re-approval rather than a note on the existing one.
How to complete it
How to complete a supplier change notification, step by step
Four judgement calls decide whether this record defends the decision. All are made before the signatures, and none is answered by the supplier.
Approval Suspended Pending Assessment is the field that costs money, and it decides whether the record is a control or a chronicle. The defensible default is suspension for any change scoring Yes on Affects Food Safety Or Legality, lifted on evidence rather than on schedule. Where you do not suspend, record why in Conditions — an unexplained No against a safety-relevant change is the finding an auditor writes.
Change Effective From and We Were Told are separate fields so the gap is visible. A change effective before you were told means unassessed product has already been received, which sets the scope of Existing Stock Assessed and whether customers need telling. Score Notified In Advance As Required against the contractual notice period, not against whether the news arrived.
Evidence needed is six independent judgements, not a checklist to complete uniformly. A site move almost always requires a new audit and updated certification; a contact change requires none of it. Marking everything Yes creates commitments that sit open; marking everything No because the supplier is trusted is how a site move passes on reputation alone.
A change declared in advance under a change control clause is normal business. The same change discovered by audit is a breach of the agreement as well as a technical risk. Where How We Found Out is anything but Supplier notified us, the CAPA route should address the notification failure separately from the technical assessment.
What auditors find
Most common supplier change notification findings
These recur against supplier change control at certification and customer audit, with the field on this template that closes each one.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate on file names a site the supplier no longer uses for your product | BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.5.1 | Drive Updated Certification Required from a Change Type of Manufacturing site, and refuse closure until Approval Record ID reflects the reassessed scope. |
| Reformulation accepted without reassessing the allergen statement on finished product | BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.5.3 | Make Impact On Allergen Profile Assessed mandatory whenever Change Type is Formulation or specification, and tie Labelling Reviewed to it. |
| Undeclared subcontracting discovered at audit, with no record of when it began | BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.5.1 | Record it honestly in How We Found Out and use Change Effective From, not the discovery date, to define the exposure window. |
| Supplier delivered throughout the assessment period with no suspension decision recorded | BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.5.1 | Require Approval Suspended Pending Assessment to be answered before the Response section closes, with a written reason in Conditions for any No. |
| Specification not revised after an accepted change, leaving two versions in circulation | BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.6 | Tie Updated Specification Required to the MOC ID so the revision is tracked to completion rather than assumed done at acceptance. |
| Customers not notified where the change affected an agreed origin or certification claim | BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 cl.3.9 | Derive Customers Notified Where Required from Impact On Origin Claims Assessed and Impact On Certification Assessed, not the buyer's judgement. |
Case in point
Case in point: the sister plant nobody assessed
An ingredient supplier emailed its account manager in February to say that, from March, one line would run at a sister plant thirty kilometres away for capacity reasons. The email described a like-for-like transfer. It was acknowledged the same day and filed in the buyer's mailbox. Technical were not copied, no notification record was raised, and deliveries continued against the existing specification and audit certificate.
In October a customer audit asked to see the certification covering the site named on recent delivery documentation. The certificate and the delivery notes named different sites. The sister plant handled sesame on adjacent lines — an allergen absent from the original site and from the finished product label. Seven months of production were assessed retrospectively and two customers notified. The corrective action addressed not the change but the absence of any route by which a change email reached the people who assess changes.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
5 sections
- Reference
- LOG-046
- Archetype
- Record
- Record ID
- SCN-2026-000
- Scoring
- Changes assessed before impact
- Direction
- High is good
- Singleton
- Yes
- Basis
- BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9
- Links
- Feeds Supplier Approval and Management of Change
- Tags
- Supplier, Change
- Sections
- 5
- Fields
- 53
- Follow up fields
- 3
- Repeating sections
- 0
- Links out
- 5
Header
16 fieldsNotification ID*
Auto sequence. Format SCN-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Completed By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Supplier Name*
Change Type*
Manufacturing site, formulation or specification, ownership, subcontractor, certification, or contact.
How We Found Out*
Supplier notified us, we discovered it, or an audit found it.
Change Effective From*
We Were Told*
Notified In Advance As Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
What Is Changing*
Affects Product We Receive*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Affects Food Safety Or Legality*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Moving Production Invalidates Everything You Hold
A supplier switching to a different plant, a new subcontractor or a reformulated ingredient makes every audit, approval and specification you hold describe something that no longer exists.
Assessment
6 fieldsImpact On Specification Assessed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Impact On Allergen Profile Assessed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Impact On Origin Claims Assessed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Impact On Certification Assessed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Impact On Continuity Assessed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Impact On Approved Scope Assessed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Evidence needed
6 fieldsNew Site Audit Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Updated Certification Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Updated Specification Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
New Samples Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Updated Data Sheet Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Updated Declarations Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Response
6 fieldsApproval Suspended Pending Assessment*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Existing Stock Assessed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Customers Notified Where Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Labelling Reviewed*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Management Of Change Raised*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Supplier Told The Outcome*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Outcome
19 fieldsChange Accepted*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Conditions
Approval Scope Updated*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
MOC ID
Links to FDN-020 MOC ID
Approval Record ID
Links to QUA-038 Approval ID
Origin Record ID
Links to LOG-039 Record ID
Items Assessed*
Excludes anything marked N/A.
Items Failed*
Score Percent*
Calculated on submission. High is good. N/A items leave the denominator.
Result Band*
- Pass3 pts
- Caution1 pt
- Fail0 pts
Completeness Percent*
How much of the template was actually answered. A high score on a half completed form is not a high score.
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
Technical*
Signature*
Procurement*
Second Signature*
LOG-046 · record IDs look like SCN-2026-000 · Feeds Supplier Approval and Management of Change
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The assessment is a morning's work. What slips is the routing — a change email reaching a buyer and not technical — and the follow-through on specifications, audits and certificates the record commits you to.
Catches the notification wherever it lands, raises the record against the right supplier, and keeps the effective-from and told-on dates visible so retrospective changes are obvious.
Carries the assessment into the quality file: reassesses approval scope, drives the specification revision and new site audit, and holds certification evidence against the site actually supplying.
Handles the ownership side — sanctions and beneficial ownership exposure after a restructure, and whether scheme certification transfers with the entity or lapses with it.
Coordinates the crew, flags changes where approval was never suspended or stock never assessed, and holds every write for your approval.
This template lives in KnowLogistics — supply chain execution. Inbound, outbound, inventory, yard, claims, supplier lifecycle and customs.
Glossary
Supplier Change Notification definitions and key terms
- Change control clause
- The contractual duty on a supplier to notify, and usually obtain agreement for, defined changes before implementing them.
- Approved scope
- The products, sites and processes the approval actually covers. A change outside it leaves the supplier unapproved for what they now supply.
- Management of change
- The formal process for assessing, authorising and implementing a change to a product, process or system, raised here as a linked record.
- Retrospective notification
- Notification received after the change took effect, so affected material has already been produced and probably delivered.
- GFSI recognition
- Benchmarking of a certification scheme by the Global Food Safety Initiative. Recognition attaches to a certificated site, not to the company.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about supplier change notification
Is a change of contact really worth a record?+
Usually not on its own, but it sits on the Change Type list so it can be logged and closed quickly rather than escalated. A contact change alongside an ownership change is different — together they often signal a restructure not fully declared.
Should suppliers complete this form themselves?+
No. The supplier provides the notification; the assessment is yours. Letting a supplier score Affects Food Safety Or Legality on their own change is the same error as letting them audit themselves.
How long should we allow for assessment?+
Set the clock by the change, not a fixed service level. A contact change closes in a day; a site move cannot close before a new audit is scheduled. What must be immediate is the suspension decision and the assessment of stock already received.
What if the supplier refuses to accept a suspension?+
That refusal is itself information about the relationship, and it belongs in Conditions. A supplier unwilling to pause supply pending assessment of a safety-relevant change is a candidate for the improvement plan or the exit route.
Does an ownership change need reassessment?+
It needs reassessment of what ownership actually touches: sanctions and beneficial ownership exposure, financial standing, continuity, and whether certification transfers with the entity or lapses with it. The physical process may be unchanged while the risk picture is not.
Why is How We Found Out scored at all?+
Because the source of the information is a performance measure for the whole supplier programme. The proportion of changes you were told about, versus discovered, tells you whether your change control clauses work far more reliably than any single assessment does.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Used together in Supplier Onboarding and Lifecycle
Conflict of Interest Declaration
Records a declared interest that could affect a business decision, and how it will be managed
Vendor and Contractor Register
Holds every supplier, contractor and service provider you work with, including their status and approval level
Supplier Onboarding Checklist
Takes a new supplier from selected to able to trade, covering banking, insurance, terms, technical approval and system setup
Supplier Sourcing Request
Starts the process of finding a new supplier, stating what is needed, why the existing suppliers cannot provide it and what the selection criteria will be
Supplier Due Diligence and Screening
Screens a prospective supplier for financial standing, ownership, sanctions exposure, litigation and adverse media before commercial discussions go far
Supplier Bank Detail Verification
Verifies a supplier's bank details through an independently obtained phone number before any payment is set up or changed
More in Supplier Lifecycle
Supplier Onboarding Checklist
Takes a new supplier from selected to able to trade, covering banking, insurance, terms, technical approval and system setup
Supplier Sourcing Request
Starts the process of finding a new supplier, stating what is needed, why the existing suppliers cannot provide it and what the selection criteria will be
Supplier Due Diligence and Screening
Screens a prospective supplier for financial standing, ownership, sanctions exposure, litigation and adverse media before commercial discussions go far
Supplier Bank Detail Verification
Verifies a supplier's bank details through an independently obtained phone number before any payment is set up or changed
Supplier Master Data Setup
Creates the supplier record in the systems that will use it, covering codes, terms, tax status, addresses and approval scope
Supplier First Delivery Review
Reviews the first delivery from a new supplier against everything that was promised during approval
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 9, cl.3.5.1, 3.6, 3.7, 3.9, 5.2 and 5.3
- Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, Articles 18 and 19 — Traceability and withdrawal
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Article 9 and Annex II — Mandatory particulars and declarable allergens
- 21 CFR Part 117, Subpart G — Supply-Chain Program
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.