SafetyChain Blog

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is a GFSI-benchmarked scheme popular throughout Europe, with some U.S.-based food and beverage companies holding certificates. While 65% of registered sites are located in Europe, 11% are located in the U.S., making it a fairly common food safety scheme for North American processors and manufacturers. If your company is preparing for a BRC audit and is wondering what to expect, this brief guide will serve as a helpful resource.

What Is GFSI?

The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is an organization whose purpose is to enforce food safety through internationally-recognized benchmarked standards. Becoming GFSI certified helps food manufacturers and processors stay competitive, produce safer products, and improve performance in a number of key areas. If your company is considering certification in one of the GFSI schemes, this guide will help you determine which option is best for your needs.

Food and beverage companies must go to great lengths to ensure the safety and quality of their products. While agencies such as the FDA and USDA help to regulate practices and enforce food safety, compliance with these laws is mandatory. To further demonstrate their commitment to providing top-notch products and adhering to rigorous standards, food and beverage companies can also voluntarily pursue GFSI certification. Here’s a look into what the qualification is, why it’s important, and how you can obtain certification to a GFSI-recognized standard in your facility.

Recently, GFSI updated its stance on the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in the audit process and is now allowing part of its certification audits to be conducted remotely. Here’s a summary of the events leading up to this change and a breakdown of what it means for food and beverage manufacturers.

In the world of food manufacturing, audit compliance is among the most critical elements to a company’s success. Yet, it is also one of the most challenging aspects of food quality and safety management. Here are a few of the ongoing obstacles organizations must overcome.

The advantages of becoming certified in a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) scheme span far and wide for food and beverage companies. Not only can maintaining GFSI compliance boost your company’s performance, but the initiative also benefits consumers and the food system as a whole. Here are just a few of the most noteworthy ways in which your company can benefit from GFSI certification.

While Global Food Safety Initiative GFSI certification has far-reaching benefits for food manufacturers and processors, aligning your entire food safety management program with rigorous GFSI compliance standards can be challenging. Whether you’re considering certification for your facility or you’re simply looking to brush up on some best practices, here are the five most noteworthy challenges of GFSI compliance to consider.

Blog post courtesy of Eric Hansen, Director of Technical Solutions, SafetyChain Software.

The Food and Drug Administration does not currently recognize cannabis as legal, so no federal standard exists for regulation of cannabis edibles. And yet, it is safe to assume that if you are running a cannabis edibles operation, your business will be subject to regulation sooner rather than later.

GFSI certification helps companies achieve better food safety outcomes, and it can also boost competitiveness and support better overall performance. Yet, effective GFSI management poses certain obstacles for food and beverage companies, such as achieving ongoing compliance and being audit-ready on demand – using only the existing resources they have at their disposal. With automated tools and powerful analytics, food safety technology can help.

GFSI certification can help your company improve its food safety and quality outcomes, secure a competitive place in the market, and maintain a positive brand reputation. Yet, effectively managing GFSI requirements using your company’s existing resources can add new challenges. To combat these challenges, many companies are implementing food safety technology including the ability to conduct portions of GFSI audits remotely.