Food Quality Magazine
ISSUE 02 | AUTUMN 2014
ners seeking GFSI recognition.
For its part, GFSI then encourages
buying companies to accept certificates issued during third party
audits against the recognised schemes, thus enabling their suppliers to
work more effectively through less
audits. This means resources can be
redirected to ensure the quality of
food produced and sold worldwide.
Buying companies that adopt the
GFSI approach could accept their
suppliers’ products without the need
for an audit as long as these suppliers
maintain certification to a recognised
standard. It is important to understand that GFSI does not make policy
for retailers, manufacturers or standard owners, and this approach is
entirely voluntary.
The steps to recognition
When an application for benchmarking is received, a committee led
by an independent chairman supported by a retailer, a manufacturer or
producer and the GFSI Secretariat
is convened to conduct a preliminary screening. If the application
is accepted, then it is reviewed in
further detail by the Benchmarking
Committee and the scheme owner
is involved. Once the Benchmarking
Committee is satisfied that the application meets the GFSI requirements,
a written consultation period begins.
At the end of that period, the benchmarking committee either recommends that the GFSI Board accept,
reject or reject until further modifications to the scheme are made.
What’s new?
The GFSI Guidance Document is
currently being revised and will be
retitled as the ‘GFSI Requirements
Document.’ Version 7 will be published in 2016. New features will
include requirements for integrity
programmes, unannounced audits,
food fraud and multisite certification.
The Auditor Competence Scheme
Committee started work in 2010 to
define generic food safety auditor
competencies and the mechanisms
by which they could be assessed and
verified. The Auditor Competence
Scheme Committee (ACSC) has developed a model for examination and
assessment. Their requirements will
be integrated into the next version of
the GFSI Guidance Document.
To administer the scheme globally,
registering the skills assessments
and credentialing of the auditors of
GFSI benchmarked schemes, a Global Food Safety Auditor programme will be created to develop and
administer the process. An integrity programme will monitor implementation and ensure credibility.
Food fraud has been an emerging
issue over recent years with various
implications for food safety. Set up
by the GFSI Board, the ‘Food Fraud
Think Tank’ has worked alongside the
GFSI Guidance Document Tec