GACP Documents: The 5 Record Groups Every Audit Demands
Ask anyone who has been through a GACP inspection what auditors spend the most time on. The answer is always the same: documents, not plants. Here are the five record groups that must be ready before inspection day.
1. Environmental records
Temperature, humidity, and related readings for every area — grow rooms, greenhouses, drying rooms, storage. Auditors look for continuity: a week-long gap in the log is a red flag. The most common miss is post-harvest — a drying room with no temperature/humidity record is a classic finding. Automated sensor logging closes this gap permanently.
2. Batch records
Every batch must be traceable end to end: genetics/seed source, sowing date, transplant, feed changes, harvest date, wet weight, dry weight, and where the product went. The principle: the whole batch retrievable as one unit — if an auditor points at a batch, you should be able to print its full dossier within minutes. Deep dive: What is a batch record?
3. Input logs
Fertilizers, pest-control products, and anything that touches the plants. Each entry needs: what was used (product name + supplier lot number), how much, on which batch, on what date, and by whom — and products must be on the approved lists. The supplier lot number matters more than most farms realize: it's the recall trail auditors use to test your system.
4. SOPs and activity records
Standard operating procedures for every core task: irrigation and feeding, IPM, harvest, drying, cleaning. Two attachments make them real: training records (who was trained on which SOP, when) and sign-offs (recurring tasks signed as done). When something goes off-script, there must be a deviation record and corrective action (CAPA).
5. Calibration and maintenance logs
Every measuring instrument — sensors, scales, pH/EC meters — needs a calibration and maintenance history. This is the easiest record group and the most frequently failed, because nobody thinks of it until inspection day. An automatic calibration schedule with reminders solves it almost entirely.
How long to keep everything
Plan on retaining production records for at least 5 years and audit reports for 10. That means your record system needs a backup plan — paper binders have been lost to floods and termites countless times. A digital system with automatic off-site backup is the answer modern inspectors accept.
A simple pre-inspection test: pick a random batch from three months ago and answer within 10 minutes — what was it fed, what was the room temperature in week 5, who harvested it, how many days did it dry? If you can't, the system isn't ready.
Note: general information, not legal advice. Verify the current document list with DTAM.