Global Food Safety Initiative Launches Retail/Wholesale Technical Working Group

The GFSI Board of Directors announces the formation of its newest Working Group. The GFSI Retail/Wholesale Technical Working Group will review the role of Retailers and Wholesalers in the food supply chain. The Group will subsequently draft key requirements for inclusion in the GFSI Guidance Document, so that existing food safety management schemes that cover this scope can be benchmarked against them. The Retail/Wholesale Technical Working Group will have a broad mandate to:

The ultimate objective of this Working Group is to define the requirements that a food safety management scheme covering the scope of Retail/Wholesale should have in place in order to ensure confidence in sourcing of product and the systems that are in place to supply safe food to the consumer. The Working Group Co-Chairs Robert Frappier, Vice President Quality Assurance, Ahold USA and Adam Johnson, Sr. Director - Food Safety & Pest Management, Walmart, welcomed the GFSI Board’s decision to convene this Working Group and commented that “as retail and wholesale outlets are the last link in the supply chain as far as responsibility of safe food handling is concerned, we are committed to ensuring that the food reaching our customer’s tables is safe. We look forward to working with the other experts in this Working Group to make this happen.” The Working Group held its first face-to-face meeting on 18th and 19th July and will report on its progress to the GFSI Board of Directors, who is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the Global Food Safety Initiative. A global stakeholder consultation on the benchmarking criteria developed by the Working Group is currently planned for the end of 2013 to ensure transparency in the development process. Payton Pruett, VP, Corporate Food Technology at The Kroger Co. and GFSI Board Liaison to the Working Group commented that “The current retail landscape is fragmented.  GFSI’s collaborative work in this area can help unite the industry and be a platform for retailers and wholesalers wanting to pursue harmonisation in the management of their outlets.  For many years, it has been the buying companies mandating certification against GFSI-recognised schemes.  Through certification, retailers and wholesalers will now be able to demonstrate a commitment to continuously improving food safety management systems in their own operations.”