ARLINGTON, Va. — The Food Marketing Institute here, the German Retail Federation and the French Wholesale and Retail Federation yesterday announced a partnership to develop harmonization between the European International Food Standards (IFS) and the United States-based Safe Quality Food (SQF) program to strengthen food safety and quality certification standards. “This collaborative effort will go a long way toward restoring consumers’ trust in the food they buy no matter where in the world it was grown, raised or processed,” said FMI President and Chief Executive Officer Tim Hammonds, in a statement. “It will streamline international audits, reduce costs for suppliers and broaden the reach of state-of-the-art food safety standards throughout our food supply.” The IFS and SQF standards have been recognized as meeting the requirements of the Global Food Safety Initiative benchmarking process and have been implemented by more than 16,000 suppliers around the world.

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