What Can GFSI Do for Your Company?

An invitation to the GFSI Conference from a retail food safety leader.

What benefits can your company gain from collaborating with GFSI? Pierre de Ginestel, director of health and quality at the multinational retailer Auchan, shared how important the organisation is for his company’s food safety strategy in a recent interview ahead of the GFSI Conference.

“Through GFSI, we can share experiences, we can share competencies, and we can develop new systems and orientations that can help us in our daily job”, says Pierre, who is also a retail member of the GFSI Steering Committee and a longtime champion of the organisation. “No one can fight against the major issues alone.”

The 2022 GFSI Conference programme addresses a variety of challenges the industry cannot overcome without joining forces. Thanks to his knowledge of the industry, the retail sector, the European market and the GFSI Steering Committee, we also asked Pierre to share some thoughts on the biggest food safety challenges ahead, how GFSI can help and why it’s so critical to be part of the conversation in Barcelona. Here’s what we learned:

There’s a lot of work behind the scenes
“Transparency is not just a word. It means we must develop the technology, the organisation and the certification to really deliver transparency. We need now to converge all these systems and make them more shareable all along the supply chain.”

Do you feel that your workload has increased? This might be why:
“A lot of sustainability risks have become food safety risks. The scope of food safety has increased a lot during the last 20 or 10 years.”

Why more information is not always better
“There is so much information circulating all over the world in nearly real time – our challenge is to qualify and certify this information.”

How GFSI can benefit you
“No one can fight against the major issues alone. We must share experiences and we must gather the competencies to improve food safety and reduce different risks. I strongly encourage you to be part of the GFSI Coalition of Action to join forces for safe food for people everywhere. And I’m counting on you to be part of the all-important conversation with food safety leaders in Barcelona.”

At the 2022 GFSI Conference, leaders and changemakers from the public and private sector will all come together to combat pressing issues for the good of consumers everywhere. We hope you’ll take Pierre’s invitation and join us in Barcelona!