WUWM members are hoping their Good Practice Guide (GPG) will put markets on the map in the eyes of the EU.

The final version of the GPG was approved at the 24th annual WUWM congress in Baltimore last week.

Graham Wallace, co-author of the guide and director markets at Glasgow City Council, said the guide was drafted in response to the EU´s imminent revision of hygiene regulations.

Under the new legislation wholesalers will be listed as ´food business operators´, making them directly responsible for insuring required levels of hygiene.

Wallace said the guide would assist wholesalers operate their businesses in compliance with the new regulations.

The inaugural guide focuses on hygiene and waste management at a local level. However, Wallace said, if successful, the concept could be replicated on a much larger scale.

He said: “This formal guide has been developed on a community basis but we thought it could be an extremely useful tool on an informal level for all markets.”

He claimed new guides could treat all manner of relevant issues, such as security, recycling and energy management.

WUWM chairman JA Ramos Rocha agreed that the international communication of such practices would be highly beneficial in helping markets to achieve harmonization of standards. And he appealed to the FAO and other international institutions to assist WUWM in applying the GPG on a wider scale.

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