Aug 19, 2011 9:55 AM

An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 food-producing sites in the United States will receive third-party food safety certification through one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) benchmarked standards.

GFSI food safety certification is required by many large retailers such as Walmart and Target, and is becoming a prerequisite for suppliers to participate in the global marketplace. The certification will assist companies to meet requirements of the newly enacted Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Requirements of GFSI such as HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) plans, documentation of a food safety plan, including incident and recall management, and traceability of lots are found in the FSMA. For companies not operating to GFSI standards, complying with FSMA may prove challenging.

CERT ID, an Iowa-based certification body, is now ANSI (American National Standards Institute)-accredited to certify companies to the GFSI-benchmarked Safe Quality Food (SQF) food safety code. Prior to receiving SQF accreditation, CERT ID had received accreditation for the GFSI-benchmarked British Retail Consortium (BRC) global standard for food safety, and for the BRC global standard for storage and distribution.

Access www.cert-id.com for more information.