WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/1004 
9 March 2010 
 (10-1236) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures  
  
 
THE GLOBAL FOOD SAFETY INITIATIVE (GFSI) 
 
Note by the Secretariat
 
  
 The WTO Secretariat has received a communi cation from the Global Food Safety Initiative 
(GFSI), which is coordinated by the Consumer Good Form.  In the context of the SPS Committee's discussions on private standards, the text of thei r communication is reproduced in this document for 
the information of Members and Observers.  
_______________ G/SPS/GEN/1004 
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  GLOBAL FOOD SAFETY INITIATIVE 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
 
 
Introduction 
 
1. Global food trade is expandi ng, providing co nsumers with access to a wider year-round 
variety of foods at lower prices.  Expanding trad e has brought into shar per focus the divergence 
among countries’ food safety regulatio ns and standards.  These vari ations may reflect differences 
among their populations’ tastes and preferences, ability to produce safe food, and willingness to pay 
for risk-reducing technology.  Building common gr ound for food safety regulation through public and 
private initiatives is helping to achieve the simulta neous goal of improving food safety and enhancing 
trade. 
2. Food regulations are based on domestic law and prac tice.  However, they also operate within 
an international framework of rul es and agreements.  This institutiona l framework used to be weakly 
developed and enforced in the past.  In the last 20 years, however, the multilateral rules have become 
much more stringent on the development and use of standards. 
3. Differences in food safety regulations and st andards among importing and exporting countries 
can cause friction and even disputes that impede in ternational food trade.  Countries are, however, 
tackling food safety and trade issues by learning fro m each other’s successes in managing food safety 
to narrow regulatory differences, collaborating to a dopt common or international standards set by a 
third party, or reaching compromises on conflicting standards.  Private food safety initiatives are also contributing to the resolution of differences across borders. 
Overview of the Global Food Safety Initiative 
 
4. The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is co llaboration between some of the world's 
leading food safety experts from retailer, manufactur er and food service companies, as well as service 
providers associated with the food supply chain.  It is coordinated by Th e Consumer Goods Forum, 
the only independent global network for consumer  goods retailers and manufacturers worldwide. 
5. In May 2000, following a number of food safety incidents, a group of international retailer 
CEOs identified the need to enhance food safety,  ensure consumer protection and to strengthen 
consumer confidence.  The GFSI is a non-prof it making foundation, created under Belgian law.  
6. These same CEOs launched the GFSI which se ts requirements for food safety schemes 
through a benchmarking process in order to  
(a) improve cost efficiency throughout the food supply chain, 
(b) to develop mechanisms to exchange information in the supply chain,  
(c) to raise consumer awareness, 
(d) to review existing good food safety practices. 
As food safety is paramount, the main goal of GFSI is  to ensure that the global supply chain is safe for 
the consumers.  G/SPS/GEN/1004 
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  Governance and Structure 
 
7. The GFSI governance process is vital in ensuring the fulfilment of the GFSI mission.  The 
structure exists with the aim to facilitate the ex change of information and identification of best 
practice issues at an international and multi-stake holder level along the entire supply chain.  The GFSI 
Board members are drawn from major retailers, ma nufacturers and food service operators.  The GFSI 
Foundation Board provides strategic direction and overs ight of daily management of GFSI.  The GFSI 
Foundation Statutes were revised in October 2008 to en sure that the key partners in the supply chain 
are equally represented in the decision making pr ocess of the Board, which will remain business-
driven. 
8. An Advisory Council composed of scientis ts, academics, non-government organization 
members and government members will provide further expertise to the GFSI Board in their decision 
making process on matters related to the mission, objec tives and goals of GFSI.  This body of experts 
was constituted in early 2010. 
9. The GFSI Technical Working Groups , Guidance Document Review  , Global Markets  and 
Regulatory Affairs and Communications  are individual working groups composed of retailers, 
manufacturers, food service operators, standard owners, certification bodies, accreditation bodies, 
industry associations and other technical experts.  
10. The GFSI Stakeholder Group is an open, annua l international forum, which creates an open 
dialogue on current and emerging food safety issues to identify top priority food safety issues as work items for consideration by the GFSI Board.  The inte ntion is to ensure that GFSI is run and managed 
by its members and is as inclusive and transparent as possible.  
11. Each of these groups are linked together to driv e the strategic direction of GFSI.  Any issues 
raised during the Stakeholder Forum are considered by the GFSI Board.  The GFSI Board in turn 
provides the mandate of work items to the GFSI Technical Working Groups, based on the recommendations made by GFSI Stakeholders.  Th e GSFI Technical Working Groups are charged 
with delivering the objectives set by the GFSI Boar d and providing the recommendations on technical 
issues.  
Mission and Objectives 
 
12. Those involved in the GFSI share a simple ai m: "Safe Food for Consumers Everywhere".  
The GFSI mission is simple but impactful for all stak eholders interested in ensuring the production of 
safe food.  The mission is ‘continuous improvement  in food safety management systems to ensure 
confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers.’  
13. The GFSI objectives are:  
• promoting convergence  between food safety standards through maintaining a 
benchmarking process  for food safety management schemes,  
•  improving 
cost efficiency throughout the food supply chain through the common 
acceptance of GFSI-recognized standards by retailers  around the world,  
• and, providing a unique international stake holder platform for networking, knowledge 
exchange and sharing of best food safety practices and information . G/SPS/GEN/1004 
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  History of the Harmonized Approach 
 
14. As mentioned, prior to the creation of GFSI  in 2000, there was a proliferation of audit 
demands primarily from major buyers within the food su pply chain.  Typically different retailers often 
applied specific food safety requirements for particular  products and suppliers were obliged to provide 
evidence, through a number of audits of their prem ises and systems, of their compliance with these 
varying specifications. 
15. The development of harmonised,  industry developed standards,  such as the British Retail 
Consortium’s (BRC) Technical Standards and the Inte rnational Food Safety Standard (IFS) in Europe 
marked a step forward in allowing suppliers to carry out single food safety audits for a number of 
retail customers.  However, these standards only pr ovided a limited solution to the problem of the 
duplication of supplier audits, with many users of th e standards were still reluctant to move to one, or 
a series of recognised standards. 
16. GFSI proposed a method by which there could be a harmonized approach to the recognition 
of food safety standards and their supporting systems, firstly by drawing up a set of defined criteria to 
be incorporated within food safety standards,  and secondly by establishing common procedures for 
the accreditation and certification bodies responsible for application of these standards (the GFSI 
Guidance Document).  This approach, once in place , will have the significant advantage to allow a 
supplier in any country to commission a single audit regardless of the number and nationality of retailers it supplies and the results of the audit will be accepted by their customers. 
Benchmarking  
17. Within GFSI, benchmarking provides this m echanism for the recognition of food safety 
schemes and their supporting standards and is a "pro cedure by which a food safety-related scheme is 
compared to the GFSI Guidance Document to determine equivalence of the scheme to GFSI 
requirements".  The process is carried out in an  independent, unbiased, technically proficient and 
transparent manner.  Benchmarking a scheme success fully means that all recognized schemes have a 
common foundation of requirements which should provide  consistent results, in regard to the common 
requirements applied during the audit, but the be nchmarked schemes cannot be considered as being 
fully equivalent to each other, as schemes differ in relation to their level of prescription and specific 
needs. 
GFSI-Recognized Schemes and Relationship to Codex 
18. All the schemes recognized by GFSI have been  derived, over many years, from standards 
developed by individual organizations , e.g. retailers, industry sectors or certification organizations.  
The GFSI-recognized standards have their origins based on standards dating back to the early 1980s, 
with the major influence being the requirements sp ecified by retailers on th eir own brand suppliers. 
19. The GFSI-recognized standards, by their very na ture, are written in differing style, but all 
‘amplify’ or describe in more detail the requirements laid down in the Codex General Principles of 
Food Hygiene Code of Practice.  These standards are revised and implemented more regularly than 
the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene Code  of Practice and therefore have attempted to 
address issues that are currently faced by the fo od industry; good examples of this are incident 
management, food defense a nd allergen management. 
20. There are within all GFSI-recognized schemes standards, requirements above and beyond 
those laid down in the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene Code of Practice, which are seen by 
the food industry as being important to food safety or highly desirable to ensure continuing 
compliance with requirements; good examples of  these are requirements related to product  G/SPS/GEN/1004 
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  specifications, product analysis, purchasing proce dures, internal audit and full product/ingredient 
traceability.  These supplementary requirements, by th eir very nature, will add robustness and rigor to 
the base requirements of food safety principles and will provide additional confidence and verification 
of process. 
21. Although it is very difficult to trace the origin of  these standards, they all reflect the need for 
compliance to meet legal requirements and are based on HACCP principles, food safety management 
systems and prerequisite programs, such as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).  It must be 
appreciated however, that these standards were all ba sed on best practices and therefore by inference 
can be traced back to the base requirements of Code x standards.  As these standards were developed, 
there are a relatively small number of specific require ments that cannot be referenced back to Codex 
standards. 
22. In 2009, GFSI commissioned a report to compare the GFSI Guidance Document Version 5, 
current GFSI-recognized schemes, and the Codex General Principles of Food Hygiene Code of 
Practice.  The key elements defined in the Codex C ode of Practice to control risk factors throughout 
the production of food are found in the GFSI Guid ance Document and recognized schemes.  This 
comparison document can be found at http://www.my gfsi.com.  This comparison demonstrates a 
convergence between the schemes with a strong founda tion in internationally recognized standards, 
based on science, developed by both industry and governmental bodies. 
 
         
  
 
Figure 1: demonstrates what elements GFS I-recognized schemes are built upon, including the 
foundation of legal, regulatory requirements and Codex principles. 
Benefits of Third Party Certification 
23. There are benefits all along the supply chai n in seeking certification as a means to 
demonstrate compliance with legal and industry fo od safety requirements, thus promoting customer 
confidence and openness to market. 
24. There is strong evidence to show certifie d companies realize higher margins through 
efficiency savings resulting from the application of disciplines defined by of the scheme’s standards.  G/SPS/GEN/1004 
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  Certified companies are also able to show equivalence of process across countries and continents 
therefore facilitating cross border trade. 
25. Finally, requirements defined in GFSI-r ecognized schemes are accessible and shared by 
many, therefore for the buying community; GFSI-rec ognized schemes provide effective shared risk 
management tools for brand protection, improving consumer confidence, and product integrity.  
Recent developments have also indicated that cer tification can provide benefits for governmental 
bodies through the demonstration of compliance w ith legislation and companies’ commitment to 
control and manage food safety risk. 
Conclusion 
 
26. The increasingly diverse tastes of consumers and the realities of the food supply chain have 
created a global food economy, where local ideas  and food products are gaining international 
currency.  Securing a global food chain requires a more thoughtful approach to how food businesses 
and governments look at ensuring food safety.  Su pply-chain collaboration and coordination in the 
development and implementation of third-party certification has taken on a new urgency and new 
focus.  Third party certification can provide consis tency, cost efficiency, less duplication, buying 
confidence and safe food for the consumer. 
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