Food Quality Magazine
ting documentation includes a ‘Training Guidance Framework’. Finally, a
first ever ‘Competency Framework’
has been developed for both primary and manufacturing, aimed at the
individual responsible for managing
the food safety requirements.
The neutral platform
One of the GFSI objectives is to
provide a unique international
stakeholder platform for collaboration, knowledge exchange and
networking.
Since 2001, CGF has welcomed delegates from all over the world to
the Global Food Safety Conference.
The venue for the annual event has
alternated between Europe and the
USA but in March 2015 it will be held
in Malaysia. The conference has es-
tablished itself at the centre of the
world food industry‘s policy work
on food safety. The GFSI Board and
Technical Working Groups take the
opportunity to hold their meetings.
The GFSI Stakeholder Meeting is held
in the afternoon after the last conference sessions ends. Many of the
participating companies also convene their own team meetings.
Focus Days are held throughout the
year to raise awareness about GFSI
work, specifically in regions that
are less familiar with the Initiative.
Members of the Board support the
events by sharing personal experiences of managing food safety in their
own organisations. Focus Days give
an opportunity for many delegates
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ISSUE 02 | AUTUMN 2014
to become involved who don’t have
the opportunity to attend the Global
Food Safety Conference.
Focus Days can provide the first step
towards the creation of a GFSI Local
Group. The first was created in Japan
in 2012. Since then, three more have
been set up in China, USA / Canada
and most recently in Mexico.
Local Group members are food
safety experts from local retailers,
manufacturers and food service
companies, drawn from GFSI Board
Member companies as well as from
other supportive companies and relevant stakeholders. They have two
central themes in their mandate:
• To communicate the GFSI vision,
objectives and approach.
• To localise the global work.
At the global level there are Technical Working Groups that provide
technical expertise and advice to
the GFSI Board. They work independently throughout the year on a
range of topics and are composed
of food safety experts from retailers,
manufacturers, food service operators, standard owners, certification
bodies, accreditation bodies and industry associations.
The challenges: Does certification
deliver food safety?
In recent years third party food
safety audits have come under critical scrutiny from the mainstream
media, particularly in the US. Food
manufacturing sites with reportedly
excellent ratings have been linked to
outbreaks and been closed down by
regulators. In most reported cases to
date, these instances were one-to-one arrangements between suppliers
and independent non-accredited audit companies, without any oversight
or recognition.
Accredited certification, as recognised by GFSI, does not deliver a guarantee of food safety nor prevent
food safety incidents. It provides a
proven framework of checks and
balances that significantly improves
the rigour of the audit process and
reduces the risk of food safety failures. Food businesses should not
rely solely on third party audits to
provide evidence of their food safety compliance. However, accredited
third-party certification audits, if
used correctly, are worthwhile tools
for any food business seeking to
implement and maintain behaviours
and practices within their facilities.
The challenges: Has audit duplication been reduced?
In February 2014 the results of the
GFSI Efficacy Study were published,
a global online survey with 834 respondents from 15,000 manufacturers across 21 countries and 10
languages. It showed that certification to a GFSI recognised scheme
does make food safety management
systems more effective. The respondents said that their ability to produce safe food in compliance with
regulations had been enhanced.
However, the research also showed
that short-term costs of implementing GFSI recognised schemes exist
and that some of the efficiencies
hoped for through the elimination
of multiple audits have not yet been
realised.
The future: th H