1. Choosing a GFSI Recognized Standard

2. What is GFSI?
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a division of the Consumer Goods Forum and a collaboration of retailers, manufacturers and food service companies that has been working on harmonization of food safety standards.

3. The food safety schemes currently recognized are:
FSSC 22000
SQF
BRC
Canada GAP
Dutch HACCP
International Food Standard
Global Red Meat Standard
Global Aquaculture Alliance BAP
PrimusGFS

4. GFSI Certification
GFSI benchmarks the various food safety standards against a basic set of criteria.
Standards meeting the criteria are recognized.
Many large retailers and manufacturers are requesting GFSI recognized certification from their suppliers.
We will look in more detail at two of the standards that are growing in popularity, FSSC and SQF

5. Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000)
FSSC is one of the benchmarked standards rising in popularity.
FSSC applies to food manufacturers.
FSSC uses the requirements in ISO and the ISO/TS (formerly available as the PAS 220)

6. ISO and the PAS 220
ISO contains the requirements for the Food Safety Management System
ISO/TS contains specific requirements for Prerequisite Programs for food manufacturers.
Note: The requirements of the PAS 220 are now documented as the ISO Technical Specification ISO/TS : PAS 220 has been withdrawn.

7. SQF Edition 7
SQF contains the requirements for the Food Safety Management System and Food Safety Fundamentals.
SQF has recently released Edition 7 of the Code. 7

8. SQF Edition 7
Management System Requirements are found in Module 2 of the SQF Code, and apply to all organizations
Food Safety Fundamentals (Prerequisite Programs and GMPs) are found in Modules 4 through 15, depending on your products.
Module 4: GAP for Compound Feed Production
Module 5: GAP for Farming of Animal Products
Module 6: GAP for Farming of Fish
Module 7: GAP for Farming of Plant Products
Module 8: GAP for Farming of Grains and pulses
Module 9: GMP for Pre-processing of Animal Products
Module 10: GMP for Pre-processing of Plant Products
Module 11: GMP for Processing of Food Products
Module 12: GMP for Transport and Distribution of Food Products
Module 13: GMP for Production of Food Packaging
Module 14: GMP for Brokers or Agents
Module 15: GMP for Food Catering, Wholesale and Retail 8

9. Choosing a Scheme
When choosing a certification scheme keep in mind the scope of the certification.
FSSC now has schemes for processing, food packaging manufacturers and animal feed producers.
SQF Can be applied to a variety of industry segments.
ISO applies to all industries in the food chain
Determine which your customer base prefers. For GFSI recognition, choose FSSC

10. How does a company achieve certification?

11. Preparing for Certification
Once you have determined certification is right for your organization and picked the certification scheme, you will need to implement the food safety management system processes to meet requirements of the standard that you choose.

12. These processes must address:
Food Safety Management
Food Safety Policy
Food Safety Manual
Management Responsibility
Management Commitment
Management Review
Resource Management
Documentation
Specifications
Procedures
Internal Audits
Corrective Action
Control of Non-conformity
Product Release
Purchasing
Supplier Performance Monitoring
Traceability
Complaint Handling
Serious Incident Management
Control of Measuring and Monitoring
Product Analysis
Prerequisite Programs (PRPs)
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)

13. Steps to Certification
A company will generally begin by conducting a Gap Analysis.
This is an audit to compare your current system to the requirements of the standard.
The analysis will provide important information on what you will need to implement or change in your organization to prepare for certification.
Tools to help you:

14. After the Gap Analysis..
The next step is to develop processes or modify current processes to address requirements that are not currently in compliance with the standard.
Tools to help you:

15. Assigning Responsibilities
A Team Structure will make project management organized and efficient.
Steering Team
Led by Project Manager
Food Safety Team
Led by Food Safety Team Leader
Procedure Teams
Tools to help you:

16. Design and Document Processes
The Steering Team, led by the project manager, will coordinate the other teams, assign responsibilities and address management requirements.
The Food Safety Team is assigned specific responsibilities by the standard, and will be responsible for some of the procedure development.
Each procedure team will design and document the new, compliant process for the procedure they have been assigned.
Tools to help you:

17. Obtaining Certification
Once the procedures are complete and implemented you will have a registrar come to your facility and perform a certification audit.
Tools to help you:

18. Getting Started
An effective project will begin with providing the training, knowledge and resources needed to guide your project manager and your teams through each step of the process. This includes:
Training
Guidance on requirements
Presentations
Checklists and Task lists
Templates: Procedures, Manual and Forms
Project Planning Tools
All available in “Premium All-in-One Package” by

19. Getting Started
Get all of the training, documentation, tools and guidance that you need at
FSSC Premium All-in-One Templates & Training Package
ISO Premium All-in-One Templates & Training Package
SQF 2000 Premium All-in-One Templates & Training Package