Food Safety Schemes for the Retail Industry Supply Chain 

General introduction

The major retail organisations world wide have always had great concerns over the quality and safety of the food products they supply to consumers, especially where it carries their own brand name. Initially many had their own requirements, but as the demand grew, a need to consolidate and simplify the process as well as retain confidence was required.

Food Processing…

Through the association CIES, (www.ciesnet.com) over 170 of the worlds major retailers agreed to benchmark their requirements into one common document and administer this through their offices of GFSI, (Global Food Safety Initiative). To-date 4 standards have been approved as meeting this benchmark, and the main 2 are:-

BRC (British Retail Consortium)  (www.brc.org.uk)

•  BRC-Food was established to provide a standard for the supply of food products and to act as key piece of evidence for UK retailers and brand owners to demonstrate ‘due diligence’ in the face of potential prosecution by the enforcement authorities. This publication has now become the international mark of excellence. Certification to the Standard verifies technical competence and aids manufacturers, brand owners and retailers fulfilment of legal obligations. It also safeguards the consumer. BRC is widely used and accepted by all UK and Scandinavian Retailers for their supply chain and Moody International has UKAS accreditation to BRC and is shown on the BRC recognition panel

In addition, Moody International can also provide:-

•   BRC/IoP-Packaging certification for the manufactures of food packaging materials used for supply within the retail chain This Standard is most applicable to manufacturers of food contact packaging for retailers’ labelled products and branded products as well. Manufacturers have an obligation to put appropriate systems and controls in place to ensure the suitability of their packaging for safe food use.

•   BRC-Storage & Distribution This is a new standard for storage and distribution is the link between all stages of the product supply chain and retail. The Standard contains separate modules for the different sectors within the supply chain, namely storage, distribution, wholesaling and contracted specialist services offered by storage companies

EU Regulations (No. 178/2002, No. 852/2004) legally oblige food storage and distribution companies to ensure systems are in place to supply safe and legal products.

•   BRC-Consumer Products was designed for Manufacturing and assembly packing companies in the non-food area to demonstrate their competence in maintaining product safety, legality and integrity. This will also…
o Satisfy the legal requirement to demonstrate compliance with EU General Product Safety Directive 2005 and ‘due diligence’
o Focus on the importance of the design and assembly of products in terms of their being ‘fit for purpose’ and safe for consumers
o Ensure consistency of safety, legality, and quality of product to the customer

This is the first non-food standard made specifically for all aspects of the retail industry

IFS (International Food Safety)  (www.food-care.info)

IFS is mainly favoured by German and French retailers and Moody International is also able to offer this with COFRAC accreditation. This allows us to offer you either of the major food processing standards that UK and European retailers would request. We can also provide combined assessments.

In addition, IFS have recently issued a new standard for transport and storage companies called IFS Logistics; again Moody International can offer certification to this standard.

For the primary producers EurepGAP for agricultural products

Since 1997, EurepGAP has developed their standards to be primarily designed to reassure consumers about how food is produced on the farm by minimizing detrimental environmental impacts of farming operations, reducing the use of chemical inputs and ensuring a responsible approach to worker health and safety as well as animal welfare.  This maintains consumer confidence in food quality and food safety. They have now grown into a series of worldwide accepted certification schemes for all retailers and have now changed their name to GlobalGAP to reflect their growing popularity and use.

GLOBALGAP is a private sector body that sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the globe. It is an equal partnership of agricultural producers and retailers who wish to establish efficient and practical certification standards and procedures for Good Agricultural Practices (G.A.P).

Moody International is able to provide GlobalGAP accredited certificates against the crop based schemes of Fruit & Vegetables as well as Ornamentals & Flowers. We are also able to offer the GlobalGAP Aquaculture standard for Farmed Fish and intend to follow this with the new standard for Shrimp.

EurepGAP is provided through our French office with COFRAC accreditation

Details of any of these schemes and further information can be obtained from our Corporate Food Certification Manager, Brian Dixon on b.dixon@moodyint.com