Since the last Fruit Logistica in February 2011, a lot has happened in the industry that has, in one way or another, impacted on food safety and consumer expectations, and contributed to the development of global product quality assurance.
The big issue in Europe undoubtedly has been the E. coli deaths in Germany caused by contaminated fresh produce. However, as a result of mismanagement of the crisis, there have been massive negative repercussions throughout the industry in Europe and especially in Almería, Spain, where the initial incorrect association with cucumbers has had significant economical effects that are still being felt. On the other side of the Atlantic, during the summer, there was the serious issue in the US with Cantaloupe melons and listeria, which also had a high mortality rate.
These incidents have created challenges for the entire industry and not least for retailer strategies for product assurance using third-party certification. They lead to questions, but the one fact that remains is that all the checks and balances affecting fresh produce production and product handling can only minimise food safety risks and can never eliminate them completely.
In terms of fresh produce standards, the year has seen the introduction of new updated versions of on-farm GlobalGAP and, in the packing operations, BRC and IFS. The technical demands and expectations created by retailers through these conduits are increasing with the bar being raised in every new version.
This retailer concept of “outsourcing” technical management responsibility to suppliers through compliance with standards is bringing new disciplines into the chain. For example, the resultant certificate is now the commercial passport to whether a truck can be unloaded or not at the retailer’s depot, especially in central Europe.
As new relevant standards such as FSSC 22000 start to appear, global standard owners are becoming more competitive with each other as they compete for the approval and blessing of retailers. While GFSI is still the overarching umbrella under which all the standards sit for approval and equivalence, retailers around the world still ask for a range of different standards.
The good news is that retailers have finally recognised that certification standards are too high an entry level for many suppliers outside Europe that are supplying to non-European operations. As a result of work developed under the GFSI flag of convenience, many smaller suppliers will breathe a sigh of relief at the possibility that they can now engage with a baseline standard of continuous improvement for food safety as ‘safe and legal’, with the prospect of progressing to more sophisticated systems in the future. -
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