GFSI 2020 and food safety?

We need to shift with the times to retain effective food safety systems.

GFSI 2020 How does it affect food safety?

BY JOEL DINSDALE QUALITY ASSURANCE COORDINATOR, VEGETABLESWA

For those of you that have your finger on the pulse in the food safety realm — you’d be well aware that the adoption of HARPS in 2016 by horticulture producers has meant that some producers had to make adjustments to their QA systems in order to comply with the adjusted market requirements.

Fast forward to 2019–21 and these changes appear to be happening more and more with the recent release of new standards from GLOBALG.A.P., Safe Quality Food (SQF), BRCGS, and Freshcare.

So, why are these changes taking place?

For some businesses, the requirement to adopt HARPS to supply retailers meant, shifting from the good old HACCP Codex Alimentarius to a GFSI benchmarked scheme — as this is a HARPS requirement. This shift would have taken place in and around 2016–17. For the bulk of the businesses shifting schemes, this meant adopting Freshcare or SQF (but some businesses may also have shifted to GLOBALG.A.P. or BRC Global Standard as their circumstances warranted it). In 2018, Freshcare embarked on its journey to become GFSI benchmarked, with Food Safety and Quality Edition 4.1 (FSQ4.1) achieving its GFSI recognition in 2019. In the same period, GLOBALG.A.P. and SQF were making adjustments to their Standards, releasing their newer versions with minor updates. So, what does this mean? This means that GFSI requirements determine what the individual schemes can and cannot include into their systems i.e., there is a set of criteria that ensures the global standards are equivalent for food safety compliance. This is currently GFSI v2020. Go back, maybe 30 years, to a time where the old harvesters lifted the potatoes from their mounds but did not convey them into a storage bunker onboard the harvester. Workers were engaged to bend over and pick them up by hand to load them into bins/sacks. It was efficient at the time but certainly not appropriate for 2020. Imagine the potato This means that many of the changes game if we were still harvesting using across whatever scheme you implement, this method? are most likely as a result of a review to the GFSI requirements. Food safety systems are no different, they are good, yet illness and even For those interested and want to know death are still all too common around more, check out mygfsi.com for details. the world still, so change is required Who calls the shots on the GFSI to continually improve. Therefore, we need to remain open to and embrace criteria? all of the changes with the knowledge In short, there is a committee of experts that the effective implementation that conduct a detailed review that will ultimately contribute to safer considers feedback, evidence etc. food for the consumer. You before authoring changes to never know, they may even the requirements. contribute positively towards A small part of this process is the GFSI conference, which is GFSI conference scheduled for early2021. improvements in production efficiencies which in turn drive profitability. scheduled for early 2021. A great example of this is All are encouraged to attend — see the website above for further details. the capacity for certification bodies to conduct remote audits using ICT. This is one such adjustment that have moved Changes to the requirements can occur when food safety or other breaches occur — to stop them from GFSI v2020 to the registered base schemes. This means that businesses will be able to conduct parts of their annual recertification audits remotely. from recurring in the future. This has the potential to save businesses We only have to look in our own time and in turn money. backyard to see the direct consequences Although it must be said that there are of this; Listeria monocytogenes rules that govern all audits, whether outbreak in rockmelons, and needles conducted completely on site or include in strawberries (food defence) to name a remote component, and these rules a couple. must be closely followed — please check Also changes in technology, advances in research and development and our understanding of variables such as your base scheme rules for details before embarking this new avenue created by the GFSI v2020 changes. microbial contaminants, means that we need to shift with the times to retain MORE INFORMATION effective food safety systems. If you’d like to know more about The good news being that these changes like a Quality Assurance Health are implemented to prevent food safety Check, please contact Joel Dinsdale incidents and bring efficiencies to food joel.dinsdale@vegetableswa.com.au. safety systems. The way I like to think of it relates to potatoes. any of the GFSI schemes or you’d