Nigel Garbutt, independent chairman of Eurep Gap, told the FPC/NFU event that there is a real need to recognise food safety as a pre-competitive issue.

'Retailers and the rest of the industry need to work together to provide an assurance to the consumer,' he said. 'The consumer does not understand one company, or country, saying their produce is safer than the next person's - it just doesn't stack up.' Garbutt added that retailers should put aside natural competitive tendencies and 'helicopter above it, and see what we are trying to do here to establish confidence in what is a fantastic product.' The ultimate goal of Eurep Gap, to achieve global consistency in pre-farm gate production standards, is ambitious, he admitted, but he praised the Assured Produce Scheme in the UK as a 'world leader in the field' and said he hopes to see other schemes around the world benchmarked to Eurep Gap.

'Ultimately our aim is that consumers have confidence in fresh produce and Eurep gap should act as a forum for continuous improvement and motivation and become a global benchmark for producers.' Producer costs, he said, would be reduced as a result, as the Eurep-Gap protocols were more widely accepted by a raft of retailers. Interestingly, he also announced that German giant Metro had joined up as a member, bringing to an end the absence of any German retail representation within Eurep Gap.

Questions from the audience centred around the banning of methyl bromide in the UK and whether UK retailers would be precluded from selling strawberries from other sources, that had used methyl bromide in the production process.

Explaining that Eurep Gap cannot and does not want to act as decision maker for buyers in the UK, Garbutt said: 'There is no room for double standards, although we are all coming from different points. We realise that there will be no level playing field created overnight, but it is encouraging nevertheless that there is a will to do this.

'This is an internationally recognised standard and if one grower, anywhere in the world, does not adhere, he lets us all down.' • Eurep Gap now has 25 retail members and 140 members overall, from 25 countries. There are 35 certification bodies in 35 countries that are accredited to carry out Eurep-Gap audits and 18 of those are ISO65 accredited, which garbutt said was critical to maintaining the integrity of the scheme on a global level.

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