JAPAN – The Global Food Safety Imitative (GFSI), a private food safety organization, and the Japan GAP Foundation (JGF), a private nonprofit organization developing and managing ASIAGAP and JGAP, have announced that ASIAGAP version 2.3 has successfully achieved recognition against GFSI’s Benchmarking Requirements Version 2020.1.
ASIAGAP is a GAP certification program approved by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). It includes elements of food safety, environmental protection, occupational safety, human rights, welfare and farm operations.
As the standards are created in line with GFSI Benchmarking Requirements, the food safety element includes an approach based on HACCP, food defense, and the prevention of food fraud.
The recognition encompasses the control points and compliance criteria for Fruits and Vegetable, Grains, and Tea.
“ASIAGAP was first recognized by GFSI in 2018 and has continued to evolve their certification programme to align to the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements since, including when we issued version 2020 in March last year. It’s always a great pleasure to witness the expansion of certification programmes under the GFSI recognition umbrella, particularly in their first years. Congratulations to the Japan GAP team for this latest success,” Marie-Claude Quentin, GFSI Senior Technical Manager said.
Benchmarking is a procedure by which a food safety Certification Program Owner (CPO) is compared to the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements. The process is designed to be executed in an independent, unbiased, technically proficient and transparent manner.
A program is ‘recognized’ by GFSI when it has been verified that it meets every single GFSI benchmarking requirement, both in procedures and in operations. An independent benchmark leader, supported by the GFSI Technical Manager, assesses whether the application meets GFSI requirements, followed by a public consultation period that is open to all GFSI Stakeholders.
The benchmark leader and GFSI Technical Manager then make a recommendation to the GFSI Steering Committee regarding recognition of the programme.
“By requiring more effective measures to address hazards in each process and manage them appropriately, our organization is able to ensure a high level of food safety for the agricultural products it produces,” said Hiroshi Ogino, the Executive Managing Director, JGF.
ASIAGAP is the only international standard developed in Japan.
The Japan GAP Foundation offer the guarantee of safe and secure agricultural products to consumers by providing producers with voluntary GAP standards that are easily accessible to all farms, including smaller ones, around the world.
They aim to disseminate GAP standards to agricultural producers around the world and contribute to economic development through the realization of production safety, environmental conservation, and sustainable agriculture.
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