GFSI Opens New Public Consultation on Securing the Future of Food Safety Auditors
New Set of GFSI Benchmarking Requirements Will Look to Help Ensure Trust in Food Safety Auditors and Increase Recognition of this Vital Role in Securing Safe Food for People Everywhere
PARIS, April 27, 2021 /3BL Media/ - Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), The Consumer Goods Forum’s Coalition of Action on food safety, is pleased to announce the launch of a consultation on a new proposed approach to food safety auditors’ qualification, training and ongoing Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The consultation, which will be open for four weeks, relates to Feature 1 of the Race to the Top (RTTT) Framework and is designed to enable the development and implementation of a new set of Benchmarking Requirements for programmes developed by Professional Recognition Bodies to support and verify food safety auditor competence.
The proposed Benchmarking Requirements were developed by a Technical Working Group gathering experts on the topic representing various GFSI and education stakeholders; this enabled consensus building on the content of the document submitted through this consultation, taking into account different points of view, impact of this work on the GFSI community and, more broadly, the food safety community.
The purpose of this consultation is to engage with all interested stakeholders on:
- the technical content of the proposed Benchmarking Requirements; and
- the ability of the new approach to deliver the outcomes of the RTTT feature 1.
Erica Sheward, GFSI Director, The Consumer Goods Forum, said, “Today, many more food safety auditors are needed to ensure that people have access to food they can trust to be safe and so there is an increasing shortage of qualified food safety auditors, requiring urgent action to remedy. To help deliver a collective solution, GFSI is working in partnership with organisations around the world to boost recognition for the profession, attract new recruits, and invest in career development and recognition for auditors already in employment. Building both numbers and competence of auditors will also help ensure consistently high and reliable audit experiences for auditees. This consultation, of course, now gives everyone involved a platform to share their inputs”.
Through the global reach and CEO leadership of The Consumer Goods Forum, GFSI is uniquely placed to help drive positive change in this area, representing some of the largest food businesses on the planet. However, GFSI understands the important role of Professional Recognition Bodies, certification bodies, certification programme owners, as well as the auditors themselves, and is keen to work with all parties to ensure the most holistic solution to boost entry into the profession and support retention.
GFSI invites all interested parties to join this mission to build awareness of the vital role of food safety auditors and transform how food safety auditors are taken care of.
Please read the full consultation document and provide your feedback by completing the online survey, included in the document, before noon CEST on 25th May. We also encourage you to circulate this consultation to other relevant stakeholders in your network to ensure we gain maximum feedback.
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About Global Food Safety Initiative
The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI; the Coalition) is a CEO-led Coalition of Action from The Consumer Goods Forum, bringing together 34 retailers and manufacturers and an extended food safety community to help oversee food safety standards for businesses and help provide access to safe food for people everywhere. As one of the world’s largest networks to help achieve safe food , GFSI is committed to making food safety everyone’s business and the Coalition members are addressing challenges facing food safety systems in their supply chains and the markets they operate in, and are helping to raise the food safety bar globally. Its ambition is to strengthen and harmonise food safety systems so they are able to feed the growing, global population and develop markets that can deliver food safely, no matter where in the world the consumer is. To learn more, visit www.mygfsi.com.
About The Consumer Goods Forum
The Consumer Goods Forum (“CGF”) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises 58 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.
For more information, please contact:
Lee Green
Communications Director
The Consumer Goods Forum
l.green@theconsumergoodsforum.com
