LGMA Focuses on Global Food Safety Initiative

As part of its strategic plan for 2012 and beyond, the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) has identified as a top priority to achieve recognition by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). A focused effort is underway to accomplish this as a means of generating additional buyer acceptance of the LGMA food safety program and reducing duplication of food safety audits for leafy greens farmers. A key component in reaching this goal was achieved with the introduction of Clarisa Molina, food safety consultant, at an LGMA Board meeting held today in Salinas.  Molina has been retained by the LGMA specifically to assist in its efforts to achieve recognition under a system such as GFSI. “We are very pleased to have someone with Clarisa’s expertise to help us meet increasing demands from produce buyers for globally recognized food safety systems,” said Scott Horsfall, CEO and President of the California LGMA.  “This is an extremely important issue for both our handler members and buyers who purchase leafy greens. We are confident that the LGMA food safety program can achieve recognition under GFSI, and we now have someone to help in navigating us through this process.” Ms. Molina was previously employed by Azzule Systems – PrimusGFS where she served as chief executive of global audit schemes.  Her responsibilities with Azzule included managing the benchmarking of the PrimusGFS scheme.  Ms. Molina worked with Primus Labs since 2000 where she served as a field representative and then quality assurance director for auditing.  She has been an instructor for several food safety related courses in the U.S. and Latin America and has been a participant on the GFSI Technical Working Group since 2009. “Clarisa comes to the LGMA with very high recommendations and has extensive experience in global food safety schemes and in food safety in general,” noted Horsfall.