6 replies to this topic

[itayuri]

Hello everyone,

 

We are a relatively new food tech startup with a new production facility.

At the moment our facility has only a HACCP system that is being audited by an external Auditor.

Our plan is to get certified in one of the GFSI standard as soon as possible, both because this seems to be a common requirement from large clients.

At first we wanted to go with ISO22000 FSSC, but it seems some clients prefer other standards, this also changes based on where the client comes from (US companies bring up SQF, other companies talk about BRC / IFS etc.)

Our target markets are both the US and Europe.

Is there one specific standard that is widely accepted by both European and US companies?

 

Any insight on the subject would be very helpful,

 

Thanks,

Itay

[MDaleDDF]

It's going to somewhat depend on your product, process, etc.    However, at the end of the day, they're all accepted pretty much the same by customers.

We're FSSC 22k, and it has a few things I can't stand, but overall it isn't bad.   It's accepted fine by all our customers, and they range from all over North and South America, to Asia, the levant, etc.   It seems more folks over your direction are SQF or BRC though, so maybe they'll chime in on why that is.

[SQFconsultant]

When you look under the hood they are pretty much all the same.

 

Ease of set up, implementation and execution would be SQF with a close second BRC.

[jfrey123]

^^^ What they said.  You could also consider approaching your customer base with a survey as to which scheme they may favor.  It happens less frequently to me these days, but we've had customers tell us they prefer one GFSI scheme over another.  If you can start off with a scheme preferred by your biggest or most customers, it makes their future visits and 2nd party audits of you a little smoother.

[Scampi]

GFSI = GLOBAL

in theory, they are all benchmarked to the same standard

 

Comes down to preferance

[itayuri]

Thanks everyone,

 

We received some, anecdotal, feedback that could indicate FSSC is the least "preferred", with one client even saying that they accept it for now but might not in the future. 

Did anyone ever encounter anything similar? 

[MDaleDDF]

Thanks everyone,

 

We received some, anecdotal, feedback that could indicate FSSC is the least "preferred", with one client even saying that they accept it for now but might not in the future. 

Did anyone ever encounter anything similar?

 

Haven't had one complaint in 15 years as FSSC 22k certed....

Honestly nowadays it doesn't much matter to them, they're going to ask for every piece of internal paperwork, walk thru audits, etc, no matter what you do!   Lol.