What is the Global food Safety Initiative (gfsi)?

Overview
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is coordinated by The Food Business Forum CIES. This forum is a global food network made up of approximately 400 retailers and manufacturers worldwide. (http://www.ciesnet.com)

In May of 2000 the GFSI was launched to provide convergence between food safety standards and establish a benchmarking process for the different food safety management schemes and achieve common acceptance of GFSI recognized standards.

The goal is “Once certified, accepted everywhere” eliminating the time expense involved in duplication of audits. The food safety schemes currently benchmarked by GFSI are: ISO 22000, BRC, IFS, Dutch HACCP and SQF.

Seven major world retailers have agreed to accept any of the four GFSI benchmarked schemes:

• Wal-Mart
• Carrefour
• Tesco
• Metro
• Migros
• Ahold
• Delhaize

ISO 22000 and gfsi

In September of 2007 the GFSI Technical Committee wrote a position paper on ISO 22000. One of the issues brought up in that paper was a perceived inadequacy of the requirements for PRPs; ISO 22000 did not included a detailed description of the PRP program to be implemented.

The committee felt there was a need for additional specifications. To address this issue, another document has been developed- PAS 220, a publicly available specification for prerequisite programs for food manufacturers. It is designed to define the requirements for a prerequisite program to be used to meet the ISO 22000. ISO 22000 requires PRPs, and PAS 220 defines details for PRPs in food manufacturing.

To combine the ISO 22000 document and the PAS 220 into one certification scheme, FSSC 22000 was developed. Food Safety System Certification (FSSC) is now the owner of this certification scheme, responsible for accreditation of registrars and management of the certification scheme.

FSSC 22000 Tools, Training and Documentation
All of our products have been designed to give you the option to include PAS 220 requirements in the system. Our checklists have a section specifically for PAS 220 requirements, our documentation includes PAS 220 requirements with guidance on what must be included to meet the requirements of PAS 220.

Our Workbook helps you decide on the appropriate standard and design your food safety management system to that standard, and our training includes descriptions of FSSC 22000. All of our products are designed to help you implement FSSC 22000 or ISO 22000, with guidance on the differences.