Our new viscoNEWS serial will give an insight into food packaging standards

and highlight their individual requirements.

L I S A S T R A U B

F O O D S A F E T Y C O N S U LTA N T V I S C O T E C

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ainly driven by the food industry,

standards, certificates, and au-

dits have long become integral

part of the food packaging manufac-

turing industry. Playing an essential

role there, recycled plastic packaging

producers are facing the certification

culture as well. Some want to be

certificated, many must. Commanding

customers, powerful competitors,

and rising corporate responsibility are

forcing them to be part of the game.

Needless to say, for many recyclers it is

an incredible burden. Time consuming,

resource demanding, and simply not

necessary are quite often arguments

against a certification. Moreover, for

those who are not deeply involved

in quality management, the variety

of food safety standards seems to be

an impenetrable jungle. Possibilities

range from BRC to FSSC, IFS and SQF.

But what is behind these acronyms

and which standard is useful for your

business? Our new viscoNEWS serial

will give an insight into food safety

standards and highlight their individual

requirements.

Before going into detail in the next

viscoNEWS issues, another term is

important to know: GFSI, the Global

Food Safety Initiative. This non-profit

organization benchmarks different

food safety certification programs.

Related to food packaging produc-

tion there are four GFSI recognized

schemes against which you can be

certified. These four standards are

going to be worked out in the

following viscoNEWS issues.

The aim is to give you as a recycling

company an overview of its require-

ments and facilitate your decision for

or against a certain standard. What-

ever standard you choose, viscotec

will do its best to support you during

implementation and help to prepare

your staff for forthcoming audits.

This is the first Packaging

Standard worldwide to be

recognized by GFSI with

more than 3,500 suppliers

in over 80 countries being

certified. It can be used by

any manufacturer produ-

cing packaging materials for

all types of products, like

food and consumer goods.

The FSSC 22000 Food Sa-

fety System Certification is

based on existing ISO Stan-

dards which certainly exp-

lains its wide dissemination.

More than 15,000 compa-

nies in over 140 countries

are working according to

this standard, many of them

being retailers. FSSC 22000

is covering ISO 22000 plus

various sector specific PRPs

(pre-requisite programs)

for food manufacturing,

farming, food packaging

manufacturing, and manu-

facture of food and feed for

animals.

This standard was de-

veloped by the Canadian

Packaging Consortium and

aims to the safety of packa-

ging materials made of rigid

plastic, flexible packaging,

glass, and others.

This standard was de-

veloped in Australia in

1994 and meets the needs

of the entire food supply

chain. It provides guidance

for general processing and

specific industry sectors like

packaging (SQF Food Safety

Code for Food Packaging).

M

S TAT I S T I C S S O U R C E www.mygfsi.comwww.brcglobalstandards.com/brc-global-standards/packaging/www.fssc22000.com/documents/home.xml?lang=enwww.ifs-cer ti f ication.com/index.php/en/www.sqf i.com/standards/

OVERVIEW OF FOOD PACKAGING

STANDARDS

GFSI

Global Food Safety Initiative

Four GFSI recognized schemes against

which you can be certified:

BRC/IoP

British Retail

Consortium/Institute

of Packaging

Standard Issue 5

FSSC 22000

Food Safety System

Certii cation

October 2011 Issue

IFS

International

Featured Standards

PACsecure Version 1

SQF Code

Safe Quality Food

Institute

Edition 7

part 1

Food safety certii cation jungle

GFSI recognized schemes for the production of safe food

packaging

1 2 3 4

PAGE 12 ISSUE #09 FOOD SAFETY CERTIFICATION JUNGLE FOOD SAFETY CERTIFICATION JUNGLE