Everyone in the world must have access to safe food. That is why every company in the animal feed chain must commit itself to safe feed. That is the vision of GMP+ International. In 2020 we will take various steps to make GMP+ FSA certification more accessible and practical. This way, we are getting closer to the goal we envision.
Johan den Hartog
Managing Director, GMP+ International
GMP + International is active in almost ninety countries around the world and serves a target audience of around 18,000 companies. Great numbers if you ask us, but they don't tell the whole story. These statistics do not tell us anything about the companies behind the numbers, which range from multinationals with billions in turnover to SMEs with one location; from transport companies and traders to premixture and compound feed producers; from the thousands of certified companies in Europe to a few dozen in Africa and Oceania.
While it is this diversity that makes our feed scheme unique and effective: the entire feed chain - anywhere in the world - can participate.
In order to be able to guarantee this in the future as well, we have critically reviewed our scheme in recent years. Any organisation claiming to be "for everyone" imposes a high standard on itself, especially in terms of accessibility and comprehensibility. This year, in 2020, we will give these themes an extra boost, starting with the launch of our fully rewritten GMP+ Feed Safety Assurance module.
In these new documents, which can now be reviewed for public consultation, we have pursued simple, practical and targeted texts. We want our scheme to be just as easy to implement for the self-employed as it is for the multinational with its comprehensive quality controls - without compromising on the requirements we have set for safe feed, together with the sector.
In addition, in 2020, we also strive to make our scheme, and with that, feed safety, more widely applicable. We have our origins in Western Europe, and most certified companies are still in this region. If you operate in a country with a lower certification level of suppliers, then our chain approach makes it more difficult to join GMP+ FSA.
We are going to lower that threshold by (further) harmonizing the purchase conditions with other scheme holders. Specifically, this means that, in a number of cases, it will be possible for GMP+ FSA certified companies to do business with suppliers that are not GMP+ FSA-certified, using a so-called gatekeeper protocol. This way, GMP+ FSA certification (and feed safety) comes quickly within reach in countries and regions where the need may be extra high. And if the entire supply chain is certified, that would confirm that everyone in the sector is committed to safe feed.
Yes, it is great to be able to say that there are 18,000 companies affiliated with GMP+ FSA. But it is even better if a small producer from Vietnam or a new premixture entrepreneur in South America can say: "GMP+ FSA is there for me too." Because a chain is only safe when all links are connected.
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