Concise information that’s to the point and useful can come from anywhere. This source might surprise you.
I was conducting some research the other day on some outside services offerings. The site I was visiting was a collaboration of the pest control company ORKIN and NSF. The site was reviewing audit standards and it was relative to food safety.
Specifically they were reviewing The Global Food Safety Initiative as a driver for food safety standards and the fact that although they do not offer standards, they do accept the standards of other organizations focused on food safety.
I offer the following from the ORKIN and NSF collaboration website, which is actually very useful, concise and to the point information.
Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a collaboration of global food safety experts from retail, manufacturing and foodservice companies and from food supply chain service providers. It is coordinated by The Consumer Goods Forum, the only independent global network for consumer goods retailers and manufacturers worldwide.
The GFSI framework – launched in Europe in May 2000 – has taken on added importance in recent years, especially since Wal-Mart became the first nationwide U.S. grocer to adopt GFSI standards in 2008. This move, in effect, put Wal-Mart’s vast supplier base on GFSI standards. GFSI does not undertake any accreditation or certification activities, but the GFSI guidance document contains commonly agreed-upon criteria for food standards, against which any food or farm assurance standard can be benchmarked. GFSI does not have any of its own standards but accepts the following global standards:
SQF – Safe Quality Food
BRC – British Retail Consortium
IFS – International Food Standards
Global GAP (HACCP based)
ISO 22000
None of the existing U.S. standards are accepted
Companies that take the time to share this type of information offer a good indicator as to the quality of their own offerings. That’s good on ORKIN. and on NSF.
If you want to learn more about GFSI, SQF or other food safety programs please contact SafeSourcing or visit our sourcing wiki.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments.
