Paris and Cologne, 22 August 2024 – The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), The Consumer Goods Forum’s Coalition of Action on food safety, and GLOBALG.A.P. c/o FoodPLUS GmBH are pleased to announce that the Integrated Farm Assurance SMART/GFS – Principles and Criteria for Aquaculture – Finfish, Crustaceans, Molluscs, Seaweed – version 6.0 and Integrated Farm Assurance GFS Plants – Principles and Criteria for Fruit and Vegetables – version 6.0 has successfully achieved recognition against GFSI Benchmarking Requirements v2020.
Please Note: The GFSI Steering Committee voted to grant recognition of the above mentioned standards on 6th August 2024. Any certificates issued against these standards prior to the 6th August 2024 are not considered to be GFSI recognised.
- AII – Farming of Fish and Seafood.
- BI – Farming of Plants (other than grains and pulses).
- BIII – Pre-process Handling of Plant Products.
Lalaina Randriamanantsoa, GFSI Senior Technical Manager said, “It is great to see GGAP successfully completing their GFSI benchmarking assessment once again. I particularly recognise the GGAP team’s engagement throughout this process and note the effort GlobalG.A.P made to improve the previous versions of the certification programmes in question whilst maintaining alignment with GFSI Benchmarking requirements v2020. Congratulations to the team!”
Elmé Coetzer, Managing Director at GLOBALG.A.P. said, “Maintaining GFSI recognition is a testament to our dedication to excellence in food safety. It underscores our role in supporting a harmonized global supply chain and ensures that our certification meets the industry’s stringent and evolving food safety requirements, safeguarding consumer trust.”
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About the GFSI Benchmarking Process
Benchmarking is a procedure by which a food safety Certification Programme Owner (CPO) has the programme(s) they have applied to have recognised by GFS compared to the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements (BMRs) for evidence of alignment. The process is designed to be executed in an independent, unbiased, technically proficient and transparent manner. A programme is ‘recognised’ by GFSI when it has been verified that it meets all every single requirement of the GFSI BMRs, i.e. both procedurally and operationally. A GFSI benchmark leader assesses whether the application meets GFSI requirements, followed by a public consultation period that is open to all GFSI Stakeholders. Recognition of a programme is subject to an affirmative vote by the members of the GFSI Steering Committee. The full process is defined in the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements document.
About the Global Food Safety Initiative
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition) is a CEO-led Coalition of Action from The Consumer Goods Forum, bringing together 42 retailers and manufacturers and an extended food safety community to help oversee food safety standards for businesses and help provide access to safe food for people everywhere. As one of the world’s largest networks to help achieve safe food , GFSI is committed to making food safety everyone’s business and the Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in, and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally. Its ambition is to strengthen and harmonise food safety systems so they are able to feed the growing, global population and develop markets that can deliver food safely, no matter where in the world the consumer is. To learn more, visit www.mygfsi.com.
For further information, contact GFSI Team: [email protected]
About GLOBALG.A.P.
GLOBALG.A.P. is a brand of smart farm assurance solutions developed by FoodPLUS GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with cooperation from producers, retailers, and other stakeholders across the food industry. These solutions include a range of standards for safe, socially and environmentally responsible farming practices. The most widely used GLOBALG.A.P. standard is IFA, applicable to fruit and vegetables, aquaculture, floriculture, and more. This standard also forms the basis for the GGN label – the consumer label for certified, responsible farming and transparency.
The GLOBALG.A.P. brand began its journey as EUREPGAP in 1997. Now, over twenty-five years later, more than 200,000 producers are under GLOBALG.A.P. certification in 132 countries. Nearly 150 team members around the world are dedicated to the mission of spreading responsible farming practices to ensure safe food for future generations.