Paris and London, 16 September 2022 – The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), The Consumer Goods Forum’s Coalition of Action on food safety, and BRCGS are pleased to announce that BRCGS Global Standard Agents and Brokers Issue 3 has successfully achieved recognition against GFSI Benchmarking Requirements v2020. The recognition encompasses GFSI Scope FII – Food Broker/Agent.
John Kukoly, Director of BRCGS said, “We are delighted to receive recognition against the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements v2020 for Issue 3 of our Global Standard for Agents and Brokers. As the world’s most accepted benchmark in the food industry, this is key to ensuring our standard can continue to be applied globally. Agents and Brokers provide a critical link in the industry for the movement and trade of products and maintaining an effective chain of traceability, and this recognition means BRCGS Certification can continue to deliver added value where it is needed most.”
Lalaina Randriamanantsoa, GFSI Senior Technical Manager said, “It is with great pleasure that we welcome the recognition of a certification programme ensuring food safety particularly around movement and trade of food and consumer goods. The certification programme for the BRCGS Global Standard Agents and Brokers Issue 3 has successfully been through the GFSI Benchmarking process and was granted GFSI recognition to confirm alignment with GFSI Benchmarking Requirements v2020. Congratulations to the team for their dedication throughout the process! “
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About the GFSI Benchmarking Process
Benchmarking is a procedure by which a food safety Certification Programme Owner (CPO) is compared to the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements. 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 every single GFSI Benchmarking Requirement, both in procedures and in operations. An independent benchmark leader, supported by the GFSI Technical Manager, assesses whether the application meets GFSI requirements, followed by a public consultation period that is open to all GFSI Stakeholders. The benchmark leader and GFSI Technical Manager then make a recommendation to the GFSI Steering Committee regarding recognition of the programme. 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 Sarah Menigault, Communications Officer, The Consumer Goods Forum: [email protected]
About BRCGS
BRCGS is a market-leading global consumer protection organisation that helps build confidence in the supply chain. The wide range of BRCGS Global Standards, covering all aspects of the supply chain, provide a framework for managing product safety, quality and legality. BRCGS certification gives assurance to consumers that products are safe, legal and of high quality.
The Agents and Brokers Global Standard provides this framework for non-manufacturing businesses in the food and packaging industries. These companies play an essential role in the movement and trade of products, providing a critical link in their chain of custody. They can influence their suppliers’ product safety and quality standards and are responsible for maintaining an effective chain of traceability. Where the activities include importation, there are often specific legal obligations regarding the products they import and there are also requirements to maintain records, which may be requested later by authorities or customers. BRCGS Agents and Brokers Certification enables these companies to manage these areas in line with best practice and therefore, is recognised by many retailers, food service companies and manufacturers around the world when assessing the capabilities of their suppliers.