GFSI Welcomes New Steering Committee Member from Restaurant Brands International

PARIS, 24th May 2022 – The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition), The Consumer Goods Forum’s Coalition of Action on food safety, is pleased to announce a new food safety in retail and food service expert has joined its Steering Committee. Eduardo Martinez Debeza, Senior Director, RBI QA International, Restaurant Brands International joins at an exciting time for the Coalition and will strengthen GFSI’s governance and help add an important voice to the development of GFSI’s global strategy.

GFSI’s Steering Committee members, who help shape the direction of the Coalition and help deliver its mission of driving collaboration between retailers and manufacturers and ensure an open and transparent relationship with key stakeholders, are key actors in helping deliver safe food for people everywhere.

Roy Kirby, Partner, FoodsafERM, and Co-Chair of the GFSI Steering Committee, said, “We are delighted to welcome Eduardo to the GFSI Steering Committee. RBI is one of the world’s largest quick service restaurant companies and providing safe food to their consumers is central to everything they do, so we look forward to the experiences and knowledge that Eduardo will now bring to the group”.

Eduardo Martinez Debeza, Senior Director, RBI QA International, Restaurant Brands International, said, “It’s an honour to be joining the GFSI Steering Committee and I can’t wait to get to work. GFSI has a long tradition of making food safety everyone’s business and in addressing challenges facing food safety systems across global supply chains. I am excited to now be part of this journey to raise the food safety bar”.

The GFSI Steering Committee now includes 23 experts from the world of food safety – including 11 retailers and 12 manufacturers – who are also members of The Consumer Goods Forum. Per GFSI’s Governance Rules, the Steering Committee will be open to receiving new applications every quarter, upon when the prospective members will be assessed. Each Steering Committee member commits to supporting the three strategic priorities of GFSI: harmonising and benchmarking of food safety certification programmes, food safety capability building and public private partnership work.

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About 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 39 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 more information, please contact Lee Green, Director, Communications, The Consumer Goods Forum at l.green@theconsumergoodsforum.com