Food safety initiatives between UNIDO, GFSI

THE United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) will expand their collaboration into a formal strategic partnership for large-scale capacity building programs aimed to help small and less developed food companies meet food safety challenges, increase productivity and gain market access. They will focus their efforts in China, Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, according to a report released by The Consumer Goods Forum.

In Southeast Asia, the ongoing discussions with key partners like the Food Industry Asia (FIA) and the Global Food Safety Partnership (GFSP) will initiate a regional sustainable supplier development project (SSDP) program to scale up the UNIDO-AEON Malaysia SSDP program into a multi-country and multi-buyer initiative.

In China, the partnership aims to coordinate efforts to work jointly towards establishing the China Food Safety Initiative (CFSI) and to scale up food safety capacity building for local food enterprises in China according to the UNIDO model on the Sustainable Supplier Development Program (SSDP) from 2016 onwards

In the Middle East, a regional GFSI group is foreseen under the ongoing UNIDO regional food safety project to support the private, and in Africa, the project will benefit from a strong UNIDO presence to design and build a joint UNIDO-GFSI multi-country, multi-buyer project for Africa on capacity building.

The GFSI is an industry-driven initiative providing thought leadership and guidance on food safety management systems necessary for safety along the supply chain. In Berlin from 29 Feb to March 3, it held the 15^th annual Global Food Safety Conference (GFSC) which brought together 1,000 food safety specialists who discussed Big Data, crisis management, the future of food safety, harmonization of trade standards.

Mike Robach, vice president of Corporate Food Safety at Cargill Inc. (USA), is currently the chairman of the GFSI board.