Has anyone worked on Non-GMO Verified using EU manufacturers?
I have a customer that wants to purchase product from one of our European manufacturers. The manufacturer has been trying to get their raw material and ingredients suppliers to provide the required documentation for the Non GMO Verified project, however we are getting stuck with the gelatin supplier who does not want to share information because they say that they are following EU Non GMO Regulations. The gelatin supplier will only provide an affidavit and a GFSI Certificate which is not sufficient in this case because is classified as a major ingredient by % of formulation. Any guidance is appreciated.
Non-GMO Project is not flexible, you may have to find an alternate supplier (who is willing to share information). I have not had them make any exceptions.
Hi Candy1,
It sounds like your problem is an obstinate supplier rather than a specific EU issue with the requirements of the Non-GMO Verification scheme.
We and various of our raw material suppliers have been through this for our global and US-based customers and didn't find the particularly onerous at all, and particularly when considered in comparison to other non-GM schemes operated for e.g. the UK retailers.
If the unhelpful position is coming from the QA side of things then I'd suggest asking your purchasing director to contact the most senior sales person at the supplier and explain that you are asking for relatively basic information and failure to provide it will lose them business. Otherwise you don't really have much choice but to purchase the ingredient elsewhere, although I really can't see how that should be necessary given the type of data being requested.
High Candy1,
we are a bakey. I have had several products for the US with non-GMO-Project (nad gluten-free) and we have had nearly all ingredients from European manufacturers which are not non-GMO-verified acc. the US requirements.
We are running non-GMO in our company since decades but based on the EU-GMO-regulation. It has taken several month (!!!) to convince non-GMO-project from our system and we had a lot of work/documentation with our suppliers. And a lot of discussion with non-GMO-project.
In between we have tried to buy some ingredients from US suppliers being already non-GMO-verified. But this will not work for many reason and could work only for a single (non bulk) ingredient. And we have checked third party opportunities in the US what failed for the product characteristics we wanted to achieve.
With non-GMO-project we have had to use the "fast track". In the standard mode we have lost a lot of time in the beginning.
But at the end we have got a set of 6 products certified. - "multi-ingredient" product manufactured in Germany with nearly all ingredients sourced in Europe.
It is possible (with a lot of personal engagement), but not easy.
Rgds
moskito