Wal-Mart is the first USA food chain grocer to require that its suppliers of food products and private label food be certified by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standard. GFSI with European origins utilizes 3rd party audits from BRC (British Retail Consortium), SQF (Safe Quality Food), IFS (International Food Standard), or an equivalent acceptable auditor. Third party audits are commonly used to evaluate and qualify potential suppliers for the larger companies, such as, Wal-Mart, Green Giant, Birds Eye etc.
Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction and reduce all the individual audits that grocers or other entities demand on their suppliers. At the moment it is difficult for suppliers to operate when they have to perform different audits for different customers. If the GFSI can establish itself, and getting Wal-Mart to go along is a giant step forward, will help to eliminate the excessive audits that are currently conducted to meet customers needs.
Time will tell whether this turns out to be the standard or just another audit demanded by the industry.
In the meantime KUDOS to Wal-Mart.
Technorati Tags: Noon International, Wal-Mart, food safety
