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Keeping Up-To-Date with GFSI/Schemes

Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a non-profit foundation, was launched in May 2000 with a vision to drive continuous improvement in food safety to strengthen consumer confidence worldwide. The GFSI Foundation Board of Directors includes representation from major global retailers, food manufacturers and food service industries that provides the strategic direction and oversees the daily management of GFSI.

GFSI benchmarked the existing standards such as the British Retail Consortium, who published their first BRCGS food safety standard in 1998, the International Food Standard (IFS), which German and French retailers developed and the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Standard, developed in Australia (bought and executed by the Food Marketing Institute). GFSI undertakes full review of the GFSI Guidance Document at a minimum of every four years in order to ensure that GFSI standards reflect the needs of their stakeholders and comply with growing food safety demands and upcoming regulatory requirements.

It is of the utmost importance for the food safety team in your facility to be up-to-date on the latest changes or new requirements to food safety standards, such as the FSMA requirements and GFSI benchmarked schemes. For example, the GFSI-benchmarked BRCGS standard was updated to Issue 7 that went into effect July 2015. This new BRCGS Issue 7 addresses important emerging food safety issues, food fraud or economically motivated adulteration, and vulnerability assessment.

By keeping track of the developments within the BRCGS standard you will be able to stay up to date on the new food safety requirements and regulations for protecting you company’s brand image and minimizing a potential risk of product recalls. The Food Safety Modernization Act is changing the culture of the food safety system in the United States. FSMA shifts the focus of the FDA to ensuring food safety through prevention of microbial contamination rather than just reacting to the problem after it has already occurred. With new changes in food safety regulations also come new compliance challenges for the food industry. With the new FSMA regulations, BRCGS is working on adding a FSMA addendum to the BRCGS audit checklist and SQF Standard 8 is scheduled to be published in 2017, which will also contain some requirements for FSMA compliance.

Keeping up-to-date with changes to GFSI schemes will also help you prepare for a successful GFSI audit and achieve or maintain certification. When new GFSI scheme requirements are introduced, the scheme owners develop and share guidance documents to ease the transition.  In most cases, the GFSI scheme owners also offer training courses specifically targeting to assist the ease of transition and help understand new development and requirements for the food facility.

The best option to stay informed is to subscribe to a number of mailing lists that will automatically send updates to your email.  BRCGS and SQFI websites are excellent resources to stay updated. You can also subscribe to DFA’s food safety and industry updates for information on new and emerging food safety requirements and regulations, as well as upcoming training courses and informational events.