Primary production of food

GlobalGAP

GlobalGAP¹⁵² stands for Global Good Agricultural Practice. This standard lays down the worldwide requirements for farmers and horticulturists on food safety, sustainability and quality. A group of twenty-six European supermarket organisations has taken the initiative in 1997 to harmonise the requirements for their suppliers of fresh produce. The final goal is that GlobalGAP shall become an ‘umbrella’ standard for food safety in the primary production sector. A large number of quality systems from all parts of the world is being or expecting to be benchmarked against the GlobalGAP standard.

Food safety is the most important part of GlobalGAP. In addition, GlobalGAP also includes requirements for animal welfare, environment and working conditions.

The ultimate goal is a single worldwide-accepted set of quality requirements, clarifying the ‘forest’ of quality systems currently used. Harmonisation should therefore take place first. GlobalGAP is the quality standard that can help.

GlobalGAP is meant to become the quality system for all farmers in the world.

Also transporters of animals shall have to comply with the requirements set by the GlobalGAP standard for animal transport.

The GlobalGAP standard is divided into several modules, where each module covers different areas or activity levels on a production site. There are scopes covering general subjects and sub-scopes covering more production specific details, such as bulk coffee, flowers and dairy cattle. GlobalGAP lays down requirements only to the primary production of food. It is a business to business quality mark, which should not appear on consumer packaging.

QS

QS¹⁵³ stands for ‘Qualität und Sicherheit für Lebensmittel vom Erzeuger bis zum Verbraucher’. The administration of the scheme is held by the ‘Central Marketing Gesellschaft der Deutschen Agrarwirtschaft’. The QS-system was developed after the BSE scandal by the German food industry as a counterpart of EurepGAP (now

152 http://www.globalgap.org.

153 http://www.q-s.de/.

GlobalGAP). Initially it was developed as a certification system for meat and meat products, set up to provide security to the consumers on the origin of meat. A group of German business chains has enlarged the application of the standard to fruit and vegetables.

The QS-system requires quality controls for the meat sector over the entire production chain, from birth to slaughter and processing. Traceability of the raw materials and transparency of production are the key building blocks of the standard. Part of the standard forms the protection of animals. The rules apply for German products and for products which are imported by Germany.

For the fruit and vegetables sector the QS-system can be comparable to GlobalGAP.

However, QS is a consumer label, with more concrete requirements than GlobalGAP, QS requirements for plant protection products and fertilisers fit the Western Europe situation better. The fruit and vegetables sector has more than 20,000 QS certified companies.

QS knows no borders. In an attempt to achieve a uniform level of food safety at the European level as well, QS puts its faith in international cooperation and integration. The aim is to avoid double auditing of the economic participants and to enable the flow of goods between the various quality assurance systems.

For this reason, QS has already come to agreements with various standards in neighbouring European countries:

Austria: Pastus+

Belgium: Ovocom/Bemefa and Certus Denmark: Global Red Meat Standard The Netherlands: GMP+ and IKB+

SGF/IRMA and SGF/RQCS

SGF International eV, formerly known as the ‘Schutzgemeinschaft der Fruchtsaftindustrie’ is a model for industrial self-regulation in the fruit juice industry.¹⁵⁴ It can also be applied in other sectors of the food industry. SGF stands for Sure Global Fair, which also describes the ‘Programm des Branchenverbandes’.

SGF is a registered association with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main (Germany).

SGF has grown to some 600 affiliated businesses in approximately 50 countries.

SGF acts as a partner for business on all issues of safety and quality of fruit juices.

GSF/IRMA (International Raw Material Assurance) supervises the production of raw materials and fruit growers, mixing stations, distributors, (cold) storage and transportation companies, who participate in the standard on a voluntary basis.

The standard uses a hygiene checklist, which among others is based on Regulation

154 http://www.sgf.org/.

Inventory of private food law

852/2004¹⁵⁵ and the AIJN-Guide of Good Hygiene Practice (Association of the Industry of Juices and Nectars from Fruits and Vegetables of the EU). The checklist is specifically designed to supervise the monitoring of all relevant aspects in the production of semi-finished products.

SGF has developed a Code of Conduct to support raw material suppliers, participating in the voluntary control system of SGF. This Code of Conduct supports the increasing awareness that generally accepted standards for ethical behaviour should be taken into account.

SQF 1000

SQF stands for Safe Quality Food.¹⁵⁶ It is a management system developed by the West Australian Department of agriculture, it was introduced in 1994. Since 2004 SQF is managed by the SQF Institute (SQFI), a division of the Food & Marketing Institute (FMI) in Washington. SQF is the only standard, which has its head office outside of Europe, which is accepted by the Global Food Safety Initiative.

SQF is a scheme that has many provisions on the quality aspects of products, on which it distinguishes itself from other standards. According to SQF a single standard for all businesses of the food production chain is not possible. The major international standards fit industrial producers, but for the primary sector is far too complicated and extensive. SQF has worked around this by using two customised standards:

• SQF 1000 is intended for the primary agricultural sector and small-scale processors and service providers. These players are often ‘chained’ in a product-market organisation. The risks are mostly limited. The code is based on HACCP, but uses a simplified method.

• SQF 2000 is intended for the ‘larger’ supplying/processing industry, where the risks are greater. In this code HACCP is fully integrated.

SQF combines a quality management system (ISO 9001) with a food safety system (HACCP) and adds requirements on identification and traceability (tracking and tracing). This is secured using both the well-known CCPs (Critical Control Points) and CQP’s (Critical Quality Points). Using this approach, an integrated system was developed, that complies with the requirements of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). SQF 2000 can, on a voluntary basis, be supplemented with modules on environmental protection and corporate social responsibility. SQF is intended to be used by all types of food businesses. SQF plays an important role in the North American food industry. In addition, suppliers and retailers in

155 EU, 2004. Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs. Official Journal of the European Union L 139, 30/4/2004: 1-54.

156 http://www.sqfi.com/.

Australia, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America also use the standard.

In Europe SQF still holds little foothold. Altogether more than 10,000 certificates have been issued to various food businesses.