GFSI raises the bar for food safety with new benchmarking requirements

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) announced the newest edition of its Benchmarking Requirements, which is globally accepted for food safety certification programmes. Aligned with Codex Alimentarius, these science-based requirements enable a shared understanding and mutual trust in the supply chain that facilitates trade and improves efficiency. It also lends nameplate authority to operations certified to a GFSI-recognised programme.
GFSI is composed of the world's leading food safety experts from retail, manufacturing and foodservice companies, as well as international organisations, governments, academia and service providers to the global food industry.
To highlight the significance of the changes made in this latest version, GFSI has broken with its traditional naming nomenclature. The new rule aligns the name of each updated set of standards with the year of release. Thus, the latest benchmarking requirement is now called Version 2020.
Version 2020 will help achieve two primary objectives, transparency and objectivity, in service of GFSI's mission of ensuring safe food for consumers everywhere. New and strengthened elements in Version 2020 include two new scopes focused on hygienic design, aspects of food safety culture and reinforced impartiality of the auditing process and the monitoring of certification bodies.
GFSI said the global food system and the journey that food takes from farm to fork grows more complex each year. This complexity makes harmonisation across markets and nations ever more critical.
Thus, comprehensive adherence to certification programmes benchmarked against Version 2020 anchors distributors and manufacturers to a set of standards meaning better assurances and outcomes for consumers. (Image from Pixabay)