12 replies to this topic

[Bets]

Hello Everyone, I have created a poll to understand if there is a push for companies to be certified with more than 1 GFSI auditing scheme. The certifications that I am mainly interested in are schemes that audit processing of food stuff and not necessarily Global GAP, Canada GAP that are focused on agriculture. 

 

I have heard that people in Europe did often do IFS along with BRC because it was very easy to handle a couple of questions more that IFS had or visa versa. 

 

Thanks Everyone! 

Edited by Bets, 20 January 2014 - 01:47 AM.

[Charles.C]

Dear Bets,

 

Considering starting up a rival to GFSI ?

 

You are possibly over-optimistic regarding people's  enthusiasm for work.

 

Most threads here seem to indicate that multiple certifications occur due to geographical locations of customers, ie force majeure.

 

Nice font though.

 

Rgds / Charles.C

[Mr. Incognito]

We are FSSC22000 and AIB but AIB isn't a GFSI scheme.

 

I thought the point of GFSI standard was that if you were approved by one you were accepted by all why would you even consider going through that twice?  If I had a customer ask me for that I'd suggest they review the purpose of GFSI standards and get back to me. (Or I'd at least think that  )

[Bets]

Hahaha Charles, 

 

i have enough fun working with the my BRC in the past that even thinking about some other GFSI equivalent body is far from my mind. But really  I think many of us enough understand the purpose of getting certified under one of these audits and what it means for us. And exactly how you mentioned, in the future might you see some companies pushing to be certified under a particular scheme because that is what they like or because that audit is performed predominately in there area. 

 

Really for you to understand why I am asking these questions from my perspective is this? We are in the US, but we will ship much to Europe. Because BRC is common in Europe over other standards might you have customers wanting or requiring BRC certification over others. Now...... I have never had that happen or heard of this happening in my experience but then again sometimes anything can happen. 

 

I agree with many of the people here you only need one. I believe all of them accomplish the main goal very well, which is continually producing a safe food. 

 

I really appreciate everyones response on the poll... AND IF YOU HAVE NOT VOTED PLEASE VOTE AWAY! 

[Charles.C]

Dear Bets,

 

Because BRC is common in Europe over other standards

 

 

This is not quite correct and was (partly  ) the point of my post.

 

Are you familiar with the historical driving factors re BRC / IFS / FSSC22000 in Europe for example ?

And SQF in USA ?

There are several threads here on this aspect.

 

Additionallly, the relatively new element of "unannounced audits" has now been added to the mix although this will probably not swing existing geographical preferences.

 

Good Luck with The Poll 

 

Rgds / Charles.C

[Simon]

I think it's a worthwhile poll.

 

A test to see if GFSI is actually realizing it's goal of...once certified accepted everywhere...or something like that.

[cazyncymru]

Other things have to be considered when going for certification by any of the schemes.

 

For example, we have Red Tractor certification, and to have that you have to be BRC accredited. I have challenged this as I may not do BRC next year.

 

Caz x

[Charles.C]

Hi Caz,

 

I suppose it's OT to yr post (and the thread) but seemed quite (darkly) interesting -

 

http://www.theguardi...rk-high-welfare

 

Rgds / Charles

 

PS - I'm curious why "Red" Tractor ?

[Simon]

I'm pleased the results of the poll show the vast majority hold certification to one standard only.

[pooled]

At one point I did work for a company that was certified under both Global GAP & the BRC.

[BrummyJim]

About 10% of our suppliers are certified to 2 or more GFSI standards. The most common pairing is BRC/IFS followed by BRC/FSSC. There are even 1 or 2 running with 3 standards! As global suppliers, I suppose it makes it easier for them to access markets.

[Cynthia Catharina]

Our company is certified for BRC and IFS and we are even waiting for GlobalGAP to be introduced for processed porkmeat. It's purely costumer driven.

 

For myself I only ask for at least one GFSI recognised scheme from my suppliers. But for example, my supplier of spices and herbs, who is only IFS certified, I had to do a supplier audit for food fraud as this is not so predominant in the current version of IFS and this is my red flag raw material. But as it is my red flag material, I probably had to do the supplier audit anyway. But what we saw during the audit was that this supplier was not very aware about the difference of food defense en food fraud. Without our own audit, we would not have gotten enough information/prove on their food fraud system for our BRC-system. Focus there was mainly food defense as in the current IFS and less to food fraud as in the current BRC.

 

So I can understand why customers ask for a certain system, depending on what your biggest risk or focus is. But your customers tend to do their own audits anyway as well, being IFS higher level and BRC AA grade certified or not. And I am not sure if that is good or bad, but you could definitely question the need all for that.

[Scampi]

Global Gap for pork???